ISLAMABAD, Dec 2: The Aga Khan Examination Board is bound to follow the national curriculum and syllabi, and will not be allowed to take examination from the contents not approved by the curriculum wing of the education ministry.

This was stated by Federal Education Minister Lt- Gen (retired) Javed Ashraf Qazi while talking to a group of journalists at his office in the ministry. The minister dispelled the impression that the new board would replace the existing 25 national boards of intermediate and secondary education.

He said Aga Khan board was the first ever body in the private sector to conduct exams, and it would work on the pattern of other educational boards. Mr Qazi said educational institutions would neither be persuaded nor directed by the government to get affiliation with the new board.

Setting up of the Aga Khan Examination Board in the private sector will help improve examination system, he said. It will be detrimental to the country's progress and economic growth if its leaders turn educational reforms into a political issue for vested interests, the minister said. "What is wrong in providing our students a board, whose results would be accepted all over the world," he said.

"I will not tolerate any kind of interference and dictation in the education sector," he said. He also criticized successive governments for 'playing havoc' with the education sector and urged political leaders to understand the importance of education.

He maintained that criticizing a private examination board for vested interests was against the very concept of public- private partnership for the uplift of education sector, and it would discourage investors.

The idea behind setting up the Aga Khan board was to offer people more educational options and to improve the examination system in the public sector. He said by involving private sector in the examination system, an atmosphere of competition would prevail, resulting in improvement in the working of the public sector examination boards.

Mr Qazi said the Aga Khan board was authorized to conduct examinations at all academic levels up to higher secondary or its equivalent. The propaganda against the board was baseless and aimed at gaining political mileage, he maintained.

Answering a question, he said out the six-point list of goals that his ministry had submitted to the prime minister, he had achieved three targets before the stipulated time.

These targets include restructuring of the ministry for better policy-making and implementation, establishment of a monitoring and evaluation cell to ensure judicious use of grants and financial assistance to various beneficiaries, including NGOs, by the education ministry and the international donors, and declaring English a compulsory subject in the Urdu medium public sector schools.

The minister said the targets of reviewing curriculum, mid- term reviewing of the national education policy and introduction of technical education at all levels would soon be accomplished.