ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training on Tuesday expressed dismay over the failure of any Pakistani university to make it to the list of top 500 universities of the world. The committee met under the chairmanship of Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak and discussed various agenda items. While critisizing the Higher Education Commission (HEC), the committee chair said that it is the regretful that the country’s higher education system had still many flaws. The chair said that the curriculum which was being taught in our educational institutions had no impact at all on society. He also said that only 115 journals were being published in the country. “The papers published in these journals have no relevance with any of the issues facing the country,” he said. In response, the HEC’s official informed the committee that the international ranking of Pakistani universities had improved this year. “This year, 11 Pakistani universities made it to the top 300 Asian universities,” he said. “Although there are budget constraints, things are being developed very rapidly,” the HEC official said, adding that HEC was also devising an education framework. However, the chairman criticised the development. “Did the HEC consult anyone before making the framework? Such frameworks have brought no change,” he said. The chairman said that the government had announced several visions to improve the economy. “However, nobody has bothered to improve the education,” he said. While defending the government, education Minister Balighur Rehman said that the government was working for establishing linkages between the academia and industry. “For this purpose, it allocated funds as well as initiated several awareness campaigns,” he said. Committee member Sehar Kamran said that the government should declare an ‘education emergency’ in the country. The Quran Education Act 2017 was also discussed at the meeting. Balighur Rehman told the committee that that the bill would be compulsory only for Muslim children in the schools. “Children belonging to other religious are exempted from compulsory Quran education,” he said. He also clarified that the bill was only applicable to federal educational institutions both in the public and private sector. “It is not for provincial education institutes. They are autonomous in respect of education,” he said, adding that Quranic reading would be taught from class one to class 5. “The Holy Quran will be taught with translation from grade 6 to grade 12,” he said. The minister said that the translation would be very simple without any tafseer and fiqh. He also said that the subject of ethics was already included in the national curriculum for non-Muslim students. “However, it needs several amendments, which will be made after consultation with minority members of the Parliament,” he said. All committee members endorsed that purposed bill. Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq pointed out the lingering issue of the equivalence certificates of A/O level examinations being provided by the Inter Board Committee ofo Chairmen (IBCC). Senator Ayesha complained that the formula followed by IBCC under which the certificates were issued to the students was flawed. The matter was discussed after call attention notice (CAN) submitted by Senator Ayesha. Senator Ayesha said that A and O level students were being discriminated against through this practice. “They face problems in enrolling in fields of medical, engineering or others in the local colleges or universities,” she said. She said that the formula used by IBCC for issuance of equivalence certificates must be revived. Published in Daily Times, July 12th , 2017.