By Hina Kiyani
ISLAMABAD: Efforts were underway by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training in order to bring uniform education system across the country, and for the purpose the government had allocated a hefty amount of Rs 10 billion.
This was stated by Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood on Wednesday during the proceedings of Senate Standing Committee on Federal Education at Parliament House.
Shafqat said that efforts were underway to bring different educational systems in uniform module by implementing Single National Curriculum.Currently, there were three different types of educational curricula, adopted by educational institutions including English medium, Urdu medium and Madaaris education system that were hampering the governments’ efforts to ensure national unity and unison.
Under a mega project launched for uniform education system, an international standard uniform curriculum was being prepared in consultation with all stakeholders including public, private and Madaaris schools which will be implemented till March 2021, he added.
Highlighting the additional measures taken by the education ministry, Shafqat said that education ministry had signed a four-year agreement with the Wafaq-ul-Madaaris under which the Madaaris will send their children in public-private schools for formal education till intermediate level.
Emphasizing the steps taken for the promotion of skill education, he informed the committee that around 170,000 students will be provided vocational education during next twenty months. The total cost of this project of skill education was around Rs10 billion, he added.
“We had taken services of best 291 public and private sector institutions providing skill education across the country for awarding of free opportunity to youth” he added. He said around 200,000 children had applied for admission in these 291 institutes for professional skills education so far. He said that 30 percent admissions will be allocated to the women. In phase I, he said, around 25000 students will be given skill education.
Sharing details of another mega scholarships project worth Rs 6.3 billion during first year, he said under the programme, the government will award merit and need-based undergraduate scholarships to as many as 50,000 students. Under the initiative, around 50,000 scholarships had also been reserved for the students of Balochistan and other less developed areas, he added.
On the directions of the committee, the minister held out the assurance to resolve the issue of pending fees of the students of Balochistan, enrolled in the public and private schools and colleges across the country under a scheme of the previous government.
