The Minister said efforts to introduce uniform curriculum in the country are bearing fruit as uniform curriculum from class one to five has been prepared and uploaded on the Ministry’s website
Mahnoor Ansar
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood has said several revolutionary steps have been taken in consultation with all stakeholders during the last two years to reform education sector in the country.
Presenting his ministry’s two year performance in a news conference in Islamabad on Friday, he said the inter-provincial education ministers forum was made functional to reach consensus decisions for development of the education sector.
The Minister said efforts to introduce uniform curriculum in the country are bearing fruit as uniform curriculum from class one to five has been prepared and uploaded on the Ministry’s website. He said schools will teach one curriculum from April next year. He said the uniform curriculum will lead to developing national cohesion in the country. He said model text books are also being prepared.
Shafqat Mahmood said the government engaged with Madaris and developed a mechanism to ensure that the religious seminary students also study national curriculum along with Dars-e-Nizami. He said the students of Madaris will have employment opportunities like students of contemporary education in practical life.
In order to promote skills of the youth, he said, Hunarmand Jawan programme was launched. He said vocational training programmes have also been stated. He said National Accreditation Council has been established to have an oversight look at the vocational training institutes.
As for the higher education, Shafqat Mahmood said under Ehsaas programme, fifty thousand university students will get scholarships annually. Similarly, he said, programmes have also been initiated for training of nurses.
The Minister said Pakistan gave an outstanding response to the Covid-19 challenge in education sector. He said it was decided with consensus among all the provincial education ministers to close educational institutions during the pandemic, and then decided to reopen them on September 15. He said a review meeting will be held on the seventh of the next month to decide about reopening of the institutes.
He said four million students were promoted to the next class from Class nine to 12, which was widely accepted. He said a tele school was started on April 7 after closure of schools on March 13. He said for higher education, online education was started. He said a new department has been created at the Ministry of Education to continue distance education.
