ISLAMABAD, April 2: The revised curriculum will be made moderate with an equal emphasis on both the religious and worldly knowledge, said the federal minister for education, Zobaida Jalal , while presiding over an inter-provincial education ministers' meeting here on Friday.
She said the government was following a policy where every segment of society was being accommodated in the decision-making.
The ministry of education, she added, would always formulate policies according to the guidelines of the 1973 Constitution. She also briefed the meeting about the objectives of national curriculum, which were, to make Quranic principles and practices an integral part of the curricula.
She said steps had been taken to enable the students to order their lives in accordance with the fundamental principles and basic concepts of Islam and to provide facilities whereby they might be enabled to understand the meanings of life according to the Holy Quran and Sunnah.
She further said the rights of minorities were very much preserved, specially in the educational institutions, as was set in the Constitution.
She said formation of syllabus was a sensitive task, which must be handled after consultation with all the stakeholders. She told the participants that the future of country and the students depended upon the policies and the guidelines, which the education ministry framed.
The minister told the meeting that Islamiat was a compulsory subject from class one to professional classes. She maintained that no change had been made in the syllabus of Islamiat.
Zubaida decided that in the new curriculum human rights issues would be included with much emphasis on the rights of women and teachers. Regarding the Quranic verses in the book of Biology, Zubaida said no instructions had been issued by the federal ministry to any of the province to remove or shift any Quranic verses from the textbooks.
She directed the provincial ministers to recheck the entire syllabus, which was being taught in their respective provinces. If there is any objectionable material, point it out to the ministry of education for necessary action, she added. She said suggestions of all the stockholders, including educationists, parents, teachers and students would be honoured, while preparing the syllabus.
All the provincial ministers, including NWFP and Balochistan, who belong to the MMA, rejected the assumption and said no verses regarding Jihad had been deleted, rather have been shifted from inter level to metric level.
Balochistan education minister, Maulana Abdul Wahid Siddiki, termed the syllabus outdated and obsolete and said new concepts should be included in the curriculum. He said curriculum once again should be reviewed to incorporate new identities of the modern era.