MINGORA, Oct 5: Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi said on Monday that the government intended to undertake a mid-term review of the 1998 education policy with to update it in accordance with the contemporary trends in all branches of knowledge.

Presiding over a meeting of the Inter-Boards Committee of Chairmen at Saidu Sharif, the minister said the review had become essential because of rapid changes in scientific and technical education.

He said meaningful changes were needed in the curricula to make education job-oriented so that the educated youth could easily get jobs in the country and abroad. He said the medium of instruction must be English for a majority of subjects taught in government schools.

He said modern knowledge could easily be acquired by introducing English as the medium of instruction in schools. The minister underscored the need for improvement in the system of examinations held by the boards of intermediate and secondary education and said the credibility of their results had eroded so the students were required to appear in entry tests for admission to professional colleges and universities.

He gave away shields to chairmen for their performance. The chairmen of 30 boards from all over the country are attending the three-day meeting.