KHYBER: Malgari Ustazan and Pakhtun Students Federation have strongly resented exclusion of Pashto subject from primary level curriculum in government schools.
In two separate statements issued here on Monday, both the Awami National Party affiliated organisations demanded of the provincial government to reverse its decision and immediately include Pashto subject at primary level from grade 1 to grade 4.
Gulab Din Afridi, president of Malgari Ustazan in Khyber, said that government through a recent notification excluded Pashto from the curriculum of initial four grades in all the government schools while keeping the same only at grade 5 level.
He said that ANP during its government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa prior to 2013 had made Pashto subject compulsory for all the primary classes but the present government reversed the decision much to the displeasure of the majority population of the province.
Teacher and student wings of ANP vow to raise voice against the decision
Abdul Wahab, general secretary of Pakhtun Students Federation in Khyber, said that getting education in mother tongue was the basic right of every child.
He said that they would not tolerate the stepmother’s treatment by the government with the Pashto language. He said that instead of banishing Pashto subject at the primary level, the authorities should direct the education department to start teaching Islamiyat and Pakistan Studies also in Pashto so that the primary level students could better understand those two subjects.
The members of Malgari Ustazan and PSF pledged to raise their voice at every forum against expulsion of Pashto from primary level curriculum to compel the government to reverse its decision.
AFGHANS: The Afghan students studying in various Pakistani educational institutions continued to arrive through Torkham border on the third consecutive day after Pakistan granted them conditional permission to continue their studies.
Officials said that a total of 330 Afghan students so far arrived in Pakistan. They said that all those students were lodged at different quarantine centres in Khyber and Peshawar immediately after their arrival.
Pakistan had made 10 days of quarantine mandatory for every asymptomatic Afghan student while those with coronavirus symptoms would be sent back to Afghanistan.
The quarantined students would be allowed to join their respective educational institutions after completion of their 10 days mandatory period, officials said. The process would take some time, they added.
Meanwhile, 112 out of the total 138 Pakistanis, who had tested positive for Covid-19 on their arrival from Afghanistan during the last one month, have recovered after being kept at special wards at district headquarters hospital in Landi Kotal.
Doctors said that all the recovered patients were allowed to go home while at least eight of the remaining persons were under-treatment.
Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2021