The Education Minister, Hazar Khan Bijrani, has directed the provincial governments to eradicate 8,000 ghost schools across the country. He was chairing the 14th Inter-Provincial Education meeting (IPEM) here on Saturday.
The meeting was attended by Special Assistant to Prime Minister Shafique Khan, Balochistan Education Minister, and Federal Education Secretary Jehangir Bashar, and Education Secretaries of Sindh, Balochistan, NWFP and Punjab.
The minister informed the participants that there are 8000 ghost schools, and that most of them are in Sindh. He said that the federal and the provincial governments are needed to work in collaboration for the eradication of these ghost schools. He also directed the federal and the provincial ministries to implement the subjects curriculum which has already notified, and accelerate the process of curriculum development of remaining subjects.
Federal Education Secretary informed the forum that out of 81 subjects included in the scheme of studies, curriculum of 24 subjects has been notified since 2006 and draft curriculum of 9 subjects is under reference to provinces for comments. After a thorough discussion, the committee decided to start computer education from Class I, instead of class VI. It also decided to introduce pilot project of computer in selected districts of the country.
The minister said that uplift of education is the top priority of the government and government would try its best for the uplift of education in the country. He said that women education is need of the hour, and urged the provinces for comprehensive policies for educational uplift of women education.
The meeting also reviewed the pace of textbooks development under the light of new national textbooks and learning materials policy, notified in 2007 after concurrence of the provincial governments. The provincial governments were asked to develop the textbooks without any further delay and resolve all delayed matters immediately.