Karachi:Warmly welcoming the efforts of federal education minister Shafqat Mahmood to streamline curriculum, Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday said the proposed ‘single national curriculum’ would revolutionize the education sector in Pakistan.
He said the federal and provincial governments should join hands to ensure a single nation curriculum, a single national examination board and single uniform for all schools of Pakistan. He said with these steps not only the prevailing double standard in our education system would be ended but the children of the rich and the poor would equally get the same education and it would improve competition and provide the nation and country an educated young leadership.
Altaf Shakoor said the PDP is against steep fees of private schools and it congratulates the parents for their successful national level protest against hike in fees of private schools. He said after the instructions of the apex court to reduce fees, hike in school fees is totally illegal. He regretted that private school mafia in Pakistan is very powerful and no government agency, including corrupt watchdog bodies, dares to take them on. He demanded taking action against the corrupt officers of education department and launch a probe against their prosperities and assets.
He suggested that the Prime Minister Imran Khan after returning from his American tour should listen to the grievances of parents and instruct the education department to practically introduce single national curriculum in Pakistan. He said if the government gives a serious attention to the education sector, hundreds of thousands of government schools could be made standard educational institutes for the benefit of low-income parents. He welcomed the efforts of the federal government to develop a consensus on the curriculum up to primary level by March next year and then try to develop consensus on the curriculum up to Class 8 by October next year so that the new curriculum can be implemented in the academic year starting in 2021. He said the proposed single curriculum should be introduced as soon as possible in the larger interest of the nation and country.
Altaf Shakoor demanded that every district in Pakistan must have at least one general university, teaching hospital, engineering college, agricultural college and technical college, an IT institute, and a good library all in government sector. He said technical and vocational education should be aggressively promoted to end prevailing joblessness and to create ample job opportunities for Pakistani youth in the country and abroad by training their vocations and trades that are needed by local and international market.