PESHAWAR, Dec 17: NWFP Minister for Science, Technology and IT, Hussain Ahmed Kanju, has said the MMA government was committed to Islamizing and harmonizing the existing education system with the modern-age needs.
He said this while addressing the opening ceremony of a new campus of Al-Khidmat Institute of Information Technology at Jehangirabad here on Tuesday.
The minister said that a 10-member education commission led by Mufti Ghulam-ur-Rehman had already been formed for the purpose. It would continue its deliberations for 40 days without any interval to finalize its report and then submit it to the government.
He said the government was well aware of the demands that the fast-changing global scenario had placed on us. This was why the government, after coming to power, created a fully-fledged science and technology department in the province.
He said six mega projects had been launched in the IT sector at a cost of Rs240 million, with the federal government contributing 75 per cent of the sum. They included establishment of a software technology park, computerization of civil secretariat, e-government kit project, establishment of new campuses of Virtual University and computerization of arms licences and domiciles. Another 11 mega projects in this sector were in the pipeline, he added.
Counting the achievements of the MMA government in the education sector, Mr Kanju said that besides provision of free education up to Matric level and free books and uniforms to students at the primary level from the next academic year, it had also approved the establishment of a women’s university and a women’s medical college.
Moreover, post-graduate classes were also being launched in all the women’s degree colleges of the province, he said.
He said that character-building of the new generation, irrespective of their religion or cast, was the focal point of the government’s education policy.
Dr Iqbal Khalil, Naib Nazim Peshawar district government, who is also patron-in-chief of Al-Khidmat Welfare Trust, said the trust was running some 50 educational institutions under the banner of Muslim Model School in different parts of the province and providing free education to more than 1,000 poor and deserving students. —PPI