ISLAMABAD: The Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting scheduled for Thursday (today) will take up the agenda of transferring Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) and the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) to provinces, as the federal government wants transferring the responsibility to provinces but the later are reluctant to accept them.
This was revealed by a senior official at the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training after attending the 19th Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC) held here on Wednesday, which was attended by all the provincial ministers and concerned secretaries, the Higher Education Commission, cantonments and garrison schools.
Sources revealed to the Business Recorder that the after the 18th constitutional amendment, the education sector has been devolved to the provinces but the matter of transferring the BECS and the NCHD to provinces was still pending for the last several years.
The federal government is also reluctant to keep these institutions with around 18,000 staff and 750,000 students anymore.
The matter was also discussed in the 19th IPEMC but the participants failed to reach any consensus as except for Gilgit-Baltistan others raised criteria, qualification, standards and funding matters.
Federal Minister for Education and Vocational Training Shafqat Mahmood presided over the 19th IPEMC, and stated that after the 18th amendment, the education sector had been devolved to the provinces, therefore, the teachers and students who were within the provinces should be taken under their control and full implementation of the 18th amendment was required for that process.
All the provinces including the Gilgit-Baltistan and the Azad Jammu and Kashmir presented their views on the matter.
However, the agenda for the final decision and strategy will be discussed at the CCI meeting on August 6.
The meeting also decided to carefully review the effects of Eidul Azha and Muharram and reiterated reopening of educational institutes from September 15 in phases. All the provinces unanimously endorsed the decision of September 15.
It was also decided that educational institutes should be opened in phases, first for senior classes, and then for junior classes.
In this regard, the Federal Ministry of Education has prepared SOPs and sent to all the provinces.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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