F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood Wednesday said the government would end injustice in the education sector by introducing uniform education system.
Addressing the 1st meeting of the National Curriculum Council (NCC) organized here by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, he said the eradication of injustice in provision of education would lead towards the concept of “One Nation”.
While hailing the participation of representatives from private schools systems, Madrassa schools as well as public sector schools, he said that this was the national level issue which can only be resolved through consultation.
Lamenting over the decreasing literacy rate from 60 to 58 percent in the country, he said that this was happen only due to poor policies and negligence of the previous governments.
The state could not perform in education sector for last seventy years, as it could not pay attention on the quality education and uniform education system, he added.
“We could not link our education with the requirements of country, due to which our youths were protesting despite having PhDs degrees,” he said.
Unfortunately, the minister said that the state remained unsuccessful to bring unity among nation through education, due to which a gap had been created which was filed by the private sector and Madrassa system.
Explaining the three kinds of curriculum being taught in the education sector, he said that private, public and Madrassa systems have different curriculums. Different type of curriculum had divided the thoughts of nation, he said adding that only solution for One Nation concept was uniform education system.
Elaborating the injustice in the society created due to classification of curriculum, the minister said the elite class has been successful in achieving high posts as they got education in expensive private schools. While, on the other hand, those who had been studying in public sector schools were remained unsuccessful.
We will introduce Single National Certification System like other developed countries in next five to seven years, he remarked.
The issues identified by the representatives in today meeting, would be resolved in consultation with all stake holders, he added. “We have started work to remove the barriers in this regard, so that national consensus could be developed” he informed. We were not imposing things on other stake holders, he said and added they were being taken in consultation to achieve the task.
After this meeting we will start work in making of contents of the uniform curriculum in which all stake holders would participate, he said.
We will make interaction at national and provincial level to ensure the successful implementation of uniform education system the minister said.
Later addressing a press conference, the minister said that the basic aim of this conference was to take next step in implementation of uniform education system.
Highlighting the two major challenges of the education sector, he said that the different kinds of curriculum were a hurdle in forging of unity among nation’s thoughts. Secondly, he emphasized that injustice in provision of education among rich and poor has divided the nation.
Today’s meeting has been successful; the minister said and added all stake holders were usually agreed with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
However, the minor reservations by some private sectors would be resolved in individual meetings, he added. The government would make sure to complete the task of uniform education system in the country till the end of this year, he concluded.
The meeting was also attended by the provincial education ministers, Chairman and Executive Director HEC, Parliamentary Secretary for Education, Singer Shahzad Roy, Secretary Federal Education, Joint Education Adviser, and the representatives from the public and private schools.
