LAHORE: Federal Minister for Education, Professional Training, National Heritage & Culture Shafqat Mahmood has said that the third coronavirus wave is serious and requires careful decision. All education and health ministers will meet on Wednesday at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) to take a decision regarding opening or further closure of educational institutions.
The minister was speaking at a meeting at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Monday. He said closure of education institutions was a difficult decision as the previous lockdown has caused already heavy loss to the students. He said closure of educational institutions shifts the focus of students. He said the ministry of education wants to open educational institutions.
About the single national curriculum, Shafqat Mahmood said it will improve educational standards for Pakistanis across the country irrespective of their socio-economic class. It will eliminate individualism and will aim to bring about equality and help to get rid of division among the society.
“We have prepared it keeping in mind modern standards of education,” he added.
About the reservations of the publishers, the federal minister said that a committee was constituted in this regard which has resolved a number of issues in this regard. Further development will be witnessed soon and we want to support the publishers. The minister said that the government has started a programme worth Rs 10 billion to impart latest skill training to 170,000 people. He said National Accredation Council has also been formed to register and grade the technical educational institutions and genuine ones would be supported. He added that their next target is to impart modern training to the teachers to meet the needs of the global standards.
LCCI President Mian Tariq Misbah said that now private publishers are being asked to deposit heavy fee and fulfill certain formalities for obtaining no objection certificate which are too strict and hard to meet. Unlike past, these publishers are now required to contact Provincial Textbook Boards of Punjab, Sindh, KPK, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir for publishing a single book. Until they succeed in obtaining NOCs from all these centers, they cannot print the course books.
He proposed that the federal ministry of education should play its role in this connection and make the procedure easy and workable for the private publishers. He said that a strong linkage can help in demand driven research which can result in developing new technologies for producing medium to hi-tech products. This will ultimately help us in value addition in our exports and also reduce the import bill through expansion in our manufacturing base.
Mian Tariq Misbah said that right now most of the universities are doing basic research instead of applied research. The universities must conduct research work on the present issues of industry. There is trust deficit among the industry and universities which can be filled through activating and linking up offices of research, innovation and commercialization (ORIC), he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021