Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Education Sardar Hussain Babak has clarified that the government has no plan to change in Islamiat course, saying that those holding protest demonstrations were misguiding the nation. Speaking at news conference here at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday, he strongly reacted that some religious groups are protesting against government for making changes in Islamiat.
He informed that the government had just updated the syllabus in accordance with the needs of the time, but it was removed nothing from the course. "We just reorganised the subjects to avoid overlapping but certain people are politicising the issue and trying to bring them on roads for fulfilling their vested interests," he maintained.
In the past, he said that the government had to form the syllabus but under the 18th amendment it was devolved to the provinces and that was why every province had to reshape the courses in consultation with local scholars and educationists. "We, through advertisements in the media, had invited educationists, Ulema, and stakeholders of cross sections of the society to give suggestions for reshaping the syllabus and thus formed committees to select the stuff for every subject," the minister said.
About the removal of Quranic verses and Ahadiths from the course of 9th and 10th (classes), he said that it was totally wrong as the government had increased the ahadiths from 20 to 25 and the Quranic verses were also available, saying that Madina Agreement had also been added to the book of Islamiat.
"During the government of former Muttahida Majlis Amal the total marks of Islamiat were 75 but the ANP-led government increased the marks to 100 and made it mandatory that its teachers must be well qualified. He said that in the past fake degree holders and less educated people taught the subject but now it was given more importance. The minister said that misinterpretation of the word Jihad (holy war) was meant to misguide the nation and create unrest and nothing else but the government would foil all such attempts.
About the change of articles in the Urdu subject of class 7th, he said that the same articles had been incorporated in the subject of Pakistan Studies of class 5th, as it irrelevant items needed to be reshaped. Recalled the tabling of Hasba Bill in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly during the MMA government, he said that majority of the people in the province were opposed to it but the government had tried to impose it on them without consultation of the stakeholders.