ISLAMABAD (MEDIA REPORT)
Minister for Interior and Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday said that the government has released funds for initiating reforms in education, improving curriculum on modern lines and bringing religious schools into the mainstream education system. Addressing the concluding ceremony of 5th National Stakeholders Conference on Dissemination of National Education Assessment System (NEAS) Findings 2016-17, he stressed that the assessment of the educational system in the country was a necessary prerequisite for initiating reforms. The conference was attended by the Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Engineer Muhammad Balighur Rahman, Vice Chancellor Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and Chairperson While congratulating the Ministry of Education, NEAS and other concerned departments for holding a successful educational assessment, the minister said that the present government has laid down the foundation of a ‘knowledge economy’ in the country. “We belong to a class of people who have transferred from the chalk and board system to 4G technology. The coming generations will use more advanced technology,” he added. According to Iqbal, computer literacy promised to transform the entire education system based on modern technology. The major issue of the Muslim Ummah, the minister noted, was to not paying attention to scientific inquiry and innovation. “Under Vision 2025, Planning Commission of Pakistan has released funds for four major programs of the ministry of education and professional training,” Iqbal outlined. “The first programme was the development of the curriculum under which the ministry of education has finalized the modern curriculum for the federal capital schools.” “The second programme was the comparative study and reforms of the Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education, under which the educational standard of the entire boards across the country was assessed and modernized with new technological facilities.” New CPEC phase to ensure transfer of technology to Pakistan: Ahsan Iqbal Due to assessment of the boards, it was observed that the levels of education standard across provinces were different, which is a major problem for us, Iqbal noted. In this regard, Minister for Federal Education Engineer Balighur Rahman successfully brought federal and provincial institutions at one platform for ensuring same standard of education, he lauded. Encouraging inquiry: ‘Govt working on education reforms’ “The third programme, according to our plan, was training teachers to make them aware of the modern curriculum so that they move towards interactive learning.” Ahsan Iqbal informed the participants that a state of the art teachers training center in Islamabad would be set up and it would be the best institution of Asia. “We will allocate funds for this project,” he said, adding that teachers across the country would be able to teach students by utilizing modern technology. According to the minister, the fourth step was reforming religious schools and introducing a modern system of education inside them. Speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister for Education Balighur Rahman appreciated the issuance of an educational assessment report, saying that the report was better than previous ones and it would be improved in the future as well. This report, he said, was conducted with government funds rather than donors. He said the government has started preparations for presenting itself in the international assessment report to be held in 2019. “The universities have been linked with industries for promotion of research culture and socio-economic development,” he added.