Development projects : First Spanish school
Science & Technology Ministry re-starts 27 uplift projects
Islamabad, Sep 17: The Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) has started
27 development projects again that had been put on hold amid the credit
crunch in financial year 2008-09. Allocation for 147 development
projects had been pledged in the last financial year out of which 109
were ongoing and 38 were new projects. The total cost of all the
projects was 2,951.108 million and the government had earmarked 461.850
million for the financial year of 2008-09. But due to financial
constraints a number of major projects had been shelved. Many of the
projects had been abandoned midway because of lack of funds thus "high
impact" projects ended in chaos without proper coordination, causing a
massive wastage of funds and public anger. Some of them had been
initiated in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and half of the
work was completed on them. The project of 'Production of Allergy
Vaccines-PMRC' worth 12.475 million was also in progress and nearly Rs
5 million had been spent on it. A project of 400 foreign Ph.D
scholarships of worth Rs 50 million for the strengthening of human
resource development in the Ministry of Science and Technology had also
been deferred which was aimed at the development of sound high-tech
manpower in emerging fields of science and technology organisations. 'Establishment
of Super Computing Research and Education Centre, NUST', 'Research
& Development of Fish Skin into Value Added Leather PCSIR',
Establishment of Health Safety and Security Division in PCSIR
Labourites Complex Karachi', ' Development of Indigenous Secure Digital
Voice Data and Fax Encryptor, Ministry of Defence, Islamabad' were
among the major projects which had been dropped from PSDP in the last
financial year. Currently the ministry has been running 140
development projects in the financial year 2009-10 and Rs 3,265.377
million have been earmarked for these projects. from Public Sector
Development Programme (PSDP) in the last financial year. Currently
the ministry has been running 140 development projects in the financial
year 2009-10 and Rs 3265.377 million has been earmarked for these
projects. The nation
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Islamabad to have first Spanish school
Islamabad: Federal capital will have the first Spanish school.
Classes will start in the school from September 26. "The school offers
courses according to needs of the students," said a press release.
Qualified native speakers with international teaching experience will
conduct classes. The courses include Spanish for business, general and
coffee-talks on cultural issues. The method of teaching is
stated to be through 'communicative approach'. "It means talking and
talking in Spanish," the statement added. The classes can be
held at the embassy of Argentina, in-company customized courses or even
'at your place with family or friends'. Spanish is the
official language in 21 countries. Today, over 300 million people speak
Spanish as a native language, making it the world's second most spoken
language in terms of native speakers and in international communication
giving Islamabad residents and young people a new avenue of learning
and perhaps having fun with a new language. Popularity of
Spanish language is growing as a second or third language in a number
of countries which chiefly use it as the primary language. Dawn
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Education policy overambitious
Islamabad: National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) Director (Education)
Iqbal ur Rahman has termed the recently announced education policy
overambitious. He
made it clear that the government would not be able to achieve the
target of allocating 7% of GDP to education sector till 2015. "There is
a confusion among people's minds as a week before the announcement of
the National Education Policy (NEP), the prime minister himself
declared that the government would allocate 4 per cent of GDP to
education sector," he added. He said that the draft of the new
education policy was prepared by the previous government in 2005. "The
present government has only added two chapters in the policy. The
government of Shaukat Aziz had also made tall claims of allocating 4
per cent of GDP to education sector, but the task was not accomplished
till the end of his government," he added. Iqbal ur Rehman
said though the new policy has been made attractive, however, the
problem of private institutions fleecing students has not been included
in the agenda of the policy. He lauded the government step of
separating academician and administrative cadres. "By doing so, the
teaching staff has been restrained to join higher and well paid posts
in the administrative cadre.
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Qiraat competition at IMCB
Islamabad: An inter-collegiate Qira'at competition was held at Islamabad Model
College for Boys (IMCB), F-11/3, where the participants from different
colleges of Islamabad recited the holy verses from 'Sura-e-Tauba' and
mesmerised the audience with their sweet voices and perfect delivery. Jawad
Nazar of IMCB I-8/3 secured 1st position in the competition while Hamza
Masood of Punjab College of Commerce, Amman Khan of Islamabad College
for Boys (ICB) G-6/3 and Asad Riaz of Fazaia Inter College secured 2nd,
3rd and 4th positions respectively. The panel of the judges
included Qari Muhammad Saleem Naeemi, IMCG, F-6/2, Qari Muhammad
Tajdar, IMCB, F-7/3 and Professor Aftab Ahmad, ICB, G-6/3 while the
duties of stage secretary were performed by Qari Faiz-ul-Hasssan Alvi. On
the occasion chief guest Qari Dr Muhammad Younas highlighted the
importance of the Holy Qura'an and urged the audience to learn the Holy
Qura'an under the supervision of some learned person, expert in
'Tajweed'. In the end Professor Muhammad Ahmad and
Qari Dr Muhammad Younas, gave away the prizes to the position holders. The news
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