LAHORE: Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood says the government is taking measures to introduce a centralised education policy and uniform syllabus for all public and private universities of the country.

He was addressing the media after fourth inter-provincial education conference at a local hotel here on Monday.

Punjab Minister for School Education Murad Raas, KP education adviser Ziaullah Bangash, federal and provincial secretaries education and chairmen of the education boards were also present.

Mr Shafqat said the objective of the conference was to discuss measures for developing education in the country and all the provinces should take steps to provide the latest and best education to the students. He said there should be no political difference in providing and developing education sector and conferences were being held at the provincial level to identify problems in the system.

“The government is focusing to improve the literacy rate of the country and all out-of-school children should be brought back to schools to restart their education. A comprehensive policy is being designed and recently 5,000 children out of 11,000 were given admission to schools in the federal capital.”

The federal minister said they would also upgrade the syllabus of the religious seminaries and schools and consultations were going at the provincial level in this regard.

The federal minister said there should be a single examination calendar in the country and admission dates of all the universities should be same.

He said they would first have to change the medium of the learning at schools from English to Urdu in next five years and English would be taught as a subject. “We are planning to upgrade all primary schools of the country as primary classes would be held in morning and secondary level classes in the afternoon and evening time,” he said.

The minister said they were also thinking to issue certificate for the grade-8 and it would be discussed in the next interprovincial level meeting. He said the next interprovincial level meeting on education would be held in Quetta in July 2020.

While answering a query, Shafqat Mahmood said they would present a bill in the national assembly to make university in Prime Minister House soon.

Punjab Minister for Education Murad Raas said they were taking measures to bring about uniformity in education system.

He said it was the basic responsibility of the government to provide free education to the masses and they would take measures to fulfill this responsibility. He suggested to the federal government to hold a meeting with education sector’s officials of all the provinces to discuss centralised and uniform education policy. “All the provinces should also ensure across the board implementation of the education policy in its respective areas.”

The federal and provincial ministers, advisers and secretaries and other officials discussed the education, especially school education issues at length and measures were suggested to upgrade schools.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2019