ISLAMABAD, May 24: The education ministry has asked for an allocation of Rs650 million in the federal budget for the year 2002-03 exclusively to streamline the working of Deeni Madaris.
An official source told Dawn that in the budget for the fiscal year 2001-02, the government had approved Rs26 million but it could only spend Rs18.7 million.
The source said the education ministry was already following a well chalked out plan to streamline the Madaris, which included introducing subjects such as English, economics, Pakistan studies and mathematics at the secondary level.
The programme also asked to introduce computer science, English and economics at intermediate level.
The government has already started computer science in 63 Madaris and had provided five computers and two printers to all these institutions.
The source said an amount of Rs3 million had already been released in grant to 200 Madaris to implement these programmes.
The concept of improving and modernizing the curricula and recognizing degree of these institutions to bring it on the par with other institutions had also been realized by the Ulema as well as by the Madrais, source claimed.
Meanwhile, referring to different agreements signed with various donor agencies, the source informed that the ministry in collaboration with the ministry of law, justice and human rights have launched a project “human rights education and awareness,” under which a new curriculum for human rights education had been developed for classes (I-VIII).
In addition, the government had also adopted a teacher training manual on preventive education against HIV/AIDS. The project has been financed under financial and technical assistance from Unesco.
Similarly a project proposal entitled “health and development education,” for youth has been developed in consultation with the provinces for implementation through the UNFPA. It will provide a grant of $2.24 million for the project.
The source said a letter of understanding has been signed between the ministry of education and US-Labour Department to rehabilitate child labour and bring them back to schools.
The US labour department is expected to provide $5 million for implementation of this project in four cities of Punjab.