ISLAMABAD: The government is “keen” to make YouTube available to the people, State Minister for Education Baleeghur Rehman said on Tuesday.

Acknowledging that a large repository of educational materials are available on the popular video-sharing website, which has been inaccessible in Pakistan since September 2012, the minister said that the government was serious in trying to restore access to the website.

The minister was addressing a townhall session on Media Information Literacy, organised by media development organisation Agahi, in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

The minister said that the government was trying to work out a way to filter objectionable content from the website so that it could be used as a tool to promote education and learning in the country.

When asked why Pakistan did not have one uniform system of education at the primary, secondary or higher secondary level, the minister conceded that there were special interests at play within the education industry.

He said that private education had become a profit-making enterprise in the country, but was quick to add that this had also happened around the world, in the US for example.

A uniform standard of education was not possible in the post-18th amendment scenario, because there was a “disconnect” between the provinces, he said.

He added that the newly-constituted National Curriculum Council was trying to develop minimum standards of education, which could be applied uniformly to public and private schools, as well as madressahs.

Published in Dawn March 25th , 2015

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