KARACHI - sindh government is yet to nominate its members for The National Educational Curriculum Council (NECC) with the the power to approve decisions of it on behalf of the provincial government.
State Minister for Federal education and Professional Training, Balighur Rahman addressing the students and faculty members of Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU) here Friday said NECC has been approved after extensive consultation with all provinces of the country.
It has been entrusted with the task to develop Minimum Educational and Curriculum Standards for across the country, he said mentioning that every province, with the exception of Sindh, has nominated three members with authority to make decisions on behalf of their respective governments. Sindh, however, has nominated three of its members with monitoring authority only, said the minister with the hope that due consideration would be extended by the Sindh authorities towards relevance of the council. HE said the NECC, to hold its first meeting soon has been unanimously agreed upon to encompass minimum national curriculum standards, from primary to higher levels.
The idea, he said was also to keep into stock the uniformity in our national history, national leaders and personalities without any disregard for personalities pertaining to each of the provinces. Moreover, equal attention is to be paid in sharing good teaching practices, quality curriculum for children and students pertaining to different levels, class room standards and all relevant sphere. This, he reiterated was not to overpass the 18th constitutional amendment in any manner but to ensure uniformity in essential aspects of education across the country. “Our priorities is and should also be the incorporation of character building in our curriculum for educational as well vocational training education,” he added.
Baligh said “Sharing of Good Practices” in the realm of educational sector was also a major objective of the NECC. He said federal government fully conscious of its responsibilities has not only raised budgetary allocation for Higher Education Commission but different programmes including that of Prime Minister’s Reimbursement Programme has also been launched.
The PML-N government during past one-and-a-half year of its current tenure has raised the allocation for HEC to Rs70 billion, he said. He said this was besides PM’s Reimbursement Programme under which post graduate students belonging to interior parts of Sindh, Fata, Northern Areas and all remote areas are assisted. Government had released Rs2 billion in this regard, last year, and we registered a 30 percent increase in the number of post-graduate students, including Masters and PhD belonging to the identified areas, said the minister.
Responding to SMIU complaint about insufficient funding from HEC, the minister said commission holds an autonomous status and has its strict criterion with top priority for universities and centres imparting education and training in technology followed by science and then arts.