National News

ISLAMABAD, July 11 (APP): Senate Standing Committee on Federal
Education and Professional Training on Tuesday in its meeting reviewed and passed the Quran Education Bill 2017 which will be now presented in the Senate for approval as it has already been approved by National Assembly.
The body meeting was held here under the chairmanship of Senator Nauman
Wazir Khattak, and also attended by the Minister for Education Engr Baligh ur Rahman, Chairperson NCHD Razina Alam Khan, Senator Sehar Kamran, Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, Senator Nuzhat Sadiq, Senator Azam Khan sawati, ED HEC Dr Arshad, Chairman FBISE, Chairman IBCC and other officials.
The minister for education assured the committee that the bill would be
implemented with the consultation of Ulema of all schools of thought.
The minister told the body that bill would only be implemented on muslim
students of federal public-private schools, while provinces are independent
in this regard.
He briefed the body that from class 1 to 5 only Reading of Quran would be
taught while from class 6th to 12th the easy and simple translation
of the Quran would be taught.
The Holy Quran Reading and Translation would be taught in the period of
Islamic Studies.
He said the curriculum from class 1 to 5 of federal schools was being
changed adding that the subject of ethics was being included in the primary
classes for non muslim students,
The ministry will hold a consultation with parliamentary members of
minorities in this regard.
Senator Sehar Kamran suggested the body that Quran education should be
taught only till metric so that the students could focus on their career in higher secondary education.
The minister for education assured the body to review all aspects of the
bill while it will be implemented.
The body also discussed the issues of honorary teachers of NCHD and
directed the ministry of federal education to set minimum honorarium of
from 8000/- to Rs 15000/-.
Chairperson NCHD told the body that minimum qualification for teachers
working in the community schools of NCHD was intermediate.
The body Chairman gave task to the minister for
education to resolve all issues related to NCHD.
The body also directed the minister to set minimum qualification criteria
for community based schools teachers to improve quality of education.
The body also directed the minister to resolve all financial issues
of NCHD with Human Development Board.
Executive Director, Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr Arshad Ali
told the body that ranking of Pakistani universities have been improved this
year.
He said that around eleven universities of Pakistan were among top three
hundred universities of the asia.
The minister for education told the body that government was making
efforts for academia-industry linkage.
ED HEC said that Pakistan was part of the Washington accord which is
honor for Pakistan.
The Chairman Body asked the HEC official to present proofs of development
in education sector in the next meeting.