School Students Across The Country To Have Same Curriculum From Next April: Shafqat Mahmood

Uniformity in terms of school curriculum will be in place across the country from April next year, said federal minister for education and professional training here on Friday evening

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2020 ):Uniformity in terms of school curriculum will be in place across the country from April next year, said federal minister for education and professional training here on Friday evening.

Addressing the inaugural session of the 11th Karachi Literature Festival, with the theme "Across Continents:How the World Travels," he said the PTI government is accordance to its manifesto is committed to ensure a country wide uniformity of content as well as standards in school education and is fast on its way to achieve the target.

The National Curriculum Council established for the purpose, said the minister is engaged to address the disparities, which he acknowledged may persist to some extent, but at least a ground level playing field would be provided.

"It is indeed tragic that even after passage of more than 70 years 22 million children in our country are out of schools but even those in schools are registered to have a very low level of learning," said the minister referring to a World Bank Report that described the situation as "learning poverty." Elaborating the learning poverty concept he said WB report found that a a large proportion of students completing their five years education at many of the public sector schools could neither read nor write reflecting neglect on part of state about the fate of education.

Government fully cognizant of the situation was said to had started taking series of measures but process is slow due to ground realities, however, the pragmatic approach being adopted is expected to help address the challenges in terms of high rate of drop outs, social and economic empowerment of the present day kids and youth on whom rest the future of the country.

"One reason children do not continue with their school education after the age of 10 is poverty and their parents want them to join the work force, the government to address this is about the introduce skill development as integral component of curriculum," said Shafqat Mahmood.

The government only recently was said to had also initiated an ambitious program under which thousands of young men and women are to be imparted updated training in different fields during next 20 months and this would be besides training of 50,000 youngsters in high end skill (block chain) at reputable institutions of the country.

The federal minister for education also referred to series of under graduate level scholarships being offered to the students on basis of merit adding that scholarships worth Rs.

400 million have also been allocated with students keen to pursue their education in the fields of arts and literature.

In particular context of the culture of literature festival, he said these needed to be inclusive and must not be kept restricted to any particular social strata and class adding that such festivals in comparatively small cities of the country could be a welcome development.

Earlier, Arshad Saeed Khan, Managing Director, Oxford University Press in his welcome address drew the attention of the chief guest, as well as the other guests comprising scholars, literary figures and prominent personalities from different walks of life, towards serious educational deficit in the country with its severe impact on national development, Supplementing, his statement he said that not only 53 million Pakistanis above the age of 10 can not read or write but 25 million children, aged between five to 15 years have never been to any school adding that qualitative issues in terms of education are also not insignificant.

Rote learning and mindless memorization coupled with kids being bullied by authoritative teachers was said to be in itself a deterrent factor.

Khan emphasized that education needed to be actually utilized as a tool of transformation, grooming the children for a bright and productive future.

The inaugural session was also addressed by Dr. Christian Turned, British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Jason Green, Public Affairs Officer, US Consulate in Karachi and Ms. Anna Ruffino, Consul General of Italy in Karachi.

Keynote speeches by William Dalrymple, internationally known author and historian, and renowned Urdu writer, Zahida Hina drew much appreciation by all those present on the occasion.

Book award session, an important component of the ceremony itself, witnessed Muhammad Hanif clinching the KLF-Getz Pharma English Fiction Prize for his Red Bugs; Tariq Rahman bagging KLF-Habib Non -Fiction Prize for Interpretation of Jehad in South Asia; Hasan Manzar securing KLF-Infaq Foundation Urdu Literature Prize for Aaye Falak e Na Insaaf; Munir Mohmand and Tariq Qureishi received KLF - Arts Council Balochi and Sindhi Literature Prizes respectively.