'Regulatory authority for private sector educational institutions soon'
By Bushra Rafique

ISLAMABAD—The governed has decided to promulgate and ordinance to establish a regulatory authority to be known as theIslamabad Capital Territory Private Educational Institutions (Regulationand Promotion), Regulatory Authority.
This was informed by Federal Minister for Education Lt. Gen (retd) JavedAshraf Qazi in his briefing at the meeting of Senate Standing Committeeon Education and Science & Technology, which met here with its chairmanSenator Mrs. Razina Alam Khan in the Parliament House on Wednesday.
"The authority would register, regulate and promote privately managed educational institutions in the capital and would check the mushroom growth of private educational institutes," said the minister.
The committee directed the ministry of education that a system of check and balance should be developed to curb irregularities prevailing in private sector education and improve the standard of the institutes working in private sector.
The Senate body also suggested that the ministry should expedite its efforts to introduce a bill in the parliament to regulate the educational institutes working in private sector and expressed the view that the fee structure of such institutes should also be regulated appropriately.
The committee appreciated the ministry's efforts for improving the standard of education in the country by chalking out vibrant and dynamic curriculum aimed at enabling the young generation to face the challenges of the globalization, thus putting the country on road to socio-economic development.
The Committee was discussing the curriculum guidelines and progress made on it so far.
The minister informed the committee that curriculum was previously revised on varying intervals in the wake of emerging needs in collaboration with all the stake holders.
He said that now the government has now decided to carry out a comprehensive revision of the curriculum after every five years. The National Curriculum Council comprising of experts in the field of science and social sciences was constituted to review and submit the draft curriculum.
He said that the Council was assigned the task to review the curriculum of compulsory subjects for classes I-XII. He said that the draft was shared with Education Ministries of all the four provinces for consideration and for suggestions if any to develop a uniform curriculum for the country.
He termed the response of the provinces in giving suggestions and recommendations for the development of a viable curriculum as positive aimed at brining improvement in the standard of education in the country.
He also dilated upon the guidelines developed for the curriculum revision and assured that nothing would be published against Islamic ideology and ethics.
The members of the committee appreciated the steps taken by the ministryfor thorough revision of curriculum taking all the stake holders intoconfidence and termed it a step in the right direction.
The meeting was also attended by Senators Mrs. Tahira Latif, Dr. Abdul Khaliq Pirzada, Mrs. Rehana Yahya Baloch, Dr. Muhammad Said, Mr. Sajid Mir and Professor Muhammad Ibrahim Khan. Minister for Education Lt. Gen (R) Javed Ashraf Qazi, MoS for Education, Anisa Zaib Tahirkheli, Chairman FBISE and Senior Officers of the Ministry of Education were also present.