Daily Times

Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said on Saturday that the government was working on introducing a uniform education system across the country.

Chairing the 53rd meeting of Governing Body of Iqbal Academy Pakistan (IAP) at Aiwan-e-Iqbal, the education minister mentioned that the government was also reviewing the existing educational curricula as it had been observed that students of English medium educational institutions, by and large, managed to grab most of the employment opportunities and excelled in competition examinations like CSS etc.

Shafqat Mahmood said that the government was focused on introducing an equal system of education so as to enable the students of government’s educational institutions and of madrasas to avail jobs and other opportunities.

“We are also analysing the content of the uniform education curricula to be introduced across Pakistan,” he said, adding that there should be five to six co-subjects which should be taught in all educational institutions and its certification should be mandatory for all.

The federal education minister also assured that IAP would be taken well on board in the formulation of the new and comprehensive curricula.

Mahmood also underlined the need for presenting the teachings/message of national poet and philosopher Muhammad Iqbal in a more effective manner so as to increase students’ interest in this regard.

“The Iqbal Society should be established in schools and colleges as well,” he added.

The minister suggested IAP to keep its website up-to-date about Muhammad Iqbal’s poetry and philosophy because it would provide an authentic platform to those who wanted to read Iqbal or conduct research on him.

He said that the Higher Education Commission chairman would be contacted for establishment of Iqbaliyat Department/Faculty in other varsities of the country, as currently Allama Iqbal Open University alone had Iqbaliyat Faculty.

The meeting was told that IAP was organising a National Conference on Iqbal in Karachi by mid November this year.

IAP Vice President Dr Shahzad Qaisar, Federal Secretary for National History Amir Raza and other members of the board were also present.

Published in Daily Times, September 7^th 2018.