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New curriculum to be introduced | Free education state obligation
Ahsan says new curriculum to be introduced next year
Islamabad, April 30, 2008: The coalition government will introduce a new
curriculum next year to make it attuned to global challenges by focusing more on
character building and at the same time imparting world class skills in
different disciplines.
"The new curriculum should conform to the
requirements of the new knowledge revolution era and should be benched mark
against curriculum of other leading nations," Education Minister Ahsan Iqbal
said while presiding over a meeting of all the provincial textbook boards here
on Tuesday .
The meeting was called to review the progress in development
of textbooks under the new curriculum.
Mr Iqbal, however, made a vague
description of what the new curriculum should be and what was wrong with the
existing one.
The plans to revise the curriculum becomes all the more
significant as changes in it are always considered to be a major decision, as
they affect the future generation of the country.
During the meeting, the
participants were asked to give their expert opinion within three weeks on the
draft of the education policy prepared by the Shaukat Aziz
government.
Such opinion will be reflected in the coming education
policy, which will also be placed before the parliament for debate before its
implementation.
The education ministry was also asked to hand over a
draft of the new curricula to the heads of the institutes of teachers training
for their expert opinion.
Mr Iqbal also directed the heads of educational
institutions to start leadership programme for the teachers, and the teachers
prior to their appointment as head teachers must be sent for mandatory
leadership programme of at least six months duration.
The development of
the textbooks and the new curriculum are scheduled to be introduced in 2008, but
due to the delay, it is expected to be implemented next year.
The
minister asked the participants to create a network of researchers so as to
benefit from the developments in letter and spirit.
While presiding over
a separate meeting attended by the heads of the departments of institutes of
education research of almost all the major universities, the minister said
special emphasis should be laid on teachers' education as the standard of
education was directly linked to quality teachers.
He announced that a
two-day national conference on the teacher's education would soon be arranged
that would aim at making teacher's education more productive and fruitful. The
training institutes of teachers must impart best possible training to the
teachers, he said, and called upon collaborated work among the teachers training
institutes.
All the teacher training institutes should be linked together
and must share their research with each other, he emphasised, and asked
concerned persons to make a central platform of teachers training institutes so
that the work done in one institute was also benefited by others.
"We do
not need new education policies," the minister said, adding that "rather we need
concrete action plans for building strong foundations of the education sector in
Pakistan." Dawn
'Free education is obligation of state'
Islamabad: Education experts and civil
society representatives on Tuesday emphasised that provision of free and quality
education to people was the state's responsibility and no excuse was acceptable
in this respect.
The emphasis was made during a seminar on "Quality
Education for All: End Exclusion Now" by Pakistan Coalition for Education (PEC)
at a local hotel.
Shehnaz Wazir Ali MNA said during the seminar that poor
planning and lack of effective mechanism were the major reasons behind low
literacy rate. She said absence of proper planning and effective implementation
of policies, which were a basic ingredient to upgrade any infrastructure, also
caused improper utilisation of funds.
She demanded funding up to four
percent of the GDP for education and emphasised that proper use of the money
should be monitored.
Ali said that there must be public private
partnership and the government should devise a strategy to subsidise private
educational institutions, operating in the areas where the government-run
institutions had failed for deliver.
She objected to the discussions in
the ruling circles to abolish private education system on the pretext that it's
creating class difference. She said the government should decide per child
education budget and the private sector should be patronised in the far-flung
areas of the country to enhance literacy rate.
Dr AH Nayyar, an
educationist, said the private sector had become a burden for the parents of
students as it was comparatively providing education against high
fee.
Citing a World Bank report, he said that the private sector was
undoubtedly providing quality education but people in the country like Pakistan
couldn't afford to send their children to private schools.
He said the
government would have to improve quality of education and patronise private
institutions, as 40 per cent students were enrolled in private schools. He said
the government would be unable to accommodate the students getting education in
the private sector if it collapsed.
Nayyar said poor standards of
education at the government institutions compelled people to send their children
to private schools.
Arshad Saeed Khan of UNESCO said that Pakistan should
ratify UNESCO Convention, 1960, 95 other countries of the world. He said the
convention declared education everyone's fundamental right. He said the
convention helped people approach against a state if it denied them free and
quality education. He said over 30 per cent children didn't go to schools and
they were deprived of their fundamental right.
Baela Raza Jamil said that
poor economic conditions of parents forced them to send their children to do
labour instead of sending them to schools. She said inadequate number of
educational institutions was another reason, which were discouraging people as
far as education was concerned. She demanded an end to political interference in
the government educational institutions. Daily Times
Locals, land mafia eat up 200 acres QAU land
Islamabad: Land mafia and locals have grabbed about 200 acres of Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) land as
the university administration is unable to erect boundary wall to save its land
and provide security to students and staff, an official of QAU said on Tuesday.
He said Capital Development Authority (CDA) had allotted
1,710 acres of land to the university in 1965 against a heavy amount, which was
paid to it at that time.
No boundary wall: He said QAU administration had
made many requests to the district administration and CDA to demarcate the land
allotted to the university so that it could erect boundary wall but none of the
concerned authorities paid attention to the issue.
The official said
delay in demarcation helped the locals and land mafia to encroach 200 acres of
university land in its northeast side.
He said in the absence of any
boundary wall miscreants were taking advantage of the situation and they had
become a threat to students, especially living in hostels. The official said
incidents of mobile phone snatching at the campus were on the rise with every
passing day. About 1,200 male and 600 female students living in seven hostels of
the university are feeling insecure, he said.
"Thick forest around the
university has become a safe heaven for criminals to disappear after committing
crimes," he added. He said the boarders had been confined to the walls of
hostels, as the university administration had asked them not to move outside
after sunset to avoid any untoward incident.
The official said an
outsider misbehaved with a female faculty member in the daylight in the recent
months and such incidents could recur if boundary walls were not constructed. He
said due to security reasons students could not benefit from university library
in the evening as the administration recently had reduced its timings. Now the
library is open to students from 10am to 7pm, he said, adding, earlier students
were able to use it for research purposes till late evening.
Sources
said persistent delay in demarcation of land had posed a serious threat to QAU
land, students and faculty members, as the university administration was not
able to construct boundary wall to ensure security.
He said besides land
mafia and locals, the government run organisations were also prowling to grab
QAU land. The official said a security agency in a letter in 2000 had asked the
university administration to cover the required area and leave rest of it for
her. The sources said the then QAU vice chancellor smelling the rat, established
departments of Pakistan Studies, Physics and American Studies to discourage
those eying on the university land. Daily Times
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| Education News | | Updated: 17 May, 2012 |
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