No harm to two-nation theory from new syllabus: Javed
By Asim Hussain

ISLAMABAD—The federal Minister for education Lt Gen (Retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi has said that there was no danger to the concept of two-nation theory by changing the syllabus.
While briefing the Parliament about latest ongoing educational reforms on Tuesday, he severely refuted the baseless allegations of the political circles that any harmful and anti-state reforms have been made to the basic educational status, and blamed some opportunist political elements of trying for a political leverage regarding the issue.
He said that the new syllabus has been prepared in consensus with the Provinces and educational levels have been split divided among districts and provinces for easy management; the Higher Education Commission has been given the control of universities while Provincial control would be exercised over schools and colleges. Schools, specifically technical ones, in Sindh have also been taken from the jurisdiction of LB governments and handed over to Provincial control for better administration.
He said that the syllabus has been revised after three comprehensive years of review and absolutely no changes have been made regarding basic Islamic values, with the subject of Islamiyat being given a comprehensive priority, with command over Quran, would also be imparted in educational institutions, which would provide due employment opportunities for teachers of religious caliber and other subjects, while holding late Gen Zia-Ul-Haq being responsible for degradation of educational system by giving priority to Islamiyat.
He said that English from class one, and computer education from sixth grade, would be considered as compulsory subjects while the educational system of Islamabad has been revamped with a new syllabus, and the Provinces have been granted a time frame of five years to implement their new syllabus.
He also informed the House that all the depleted buildings are being demolished under the supervision of Army Engineers, and a comprehensive review of the facilities has revealed that 50,000 educational institutions are being run in open air, while 38,000 schools are without the facility of drinking water and electricity. He said that the federal government is willing to give a subsidy of Rs 100 billion for provision of facilities, which would be completed under the supervision of Army engineers. He said that the educational budget has been raised from its previous of Rs 160 billion to Rs 217 billion, and this has yet to be increased to 4% of GDP to bring it to the desired level.
He lauded the government of Punjab, which based its educational reforms on loan from World Bank, while the rest of Provinces are negotiating. He also announced special educational privileges for deserving students from Baloch and tribal areas, giving them scholarships for high-level institutions.
He also announced the new examination system, which has already started functioning in Islamabad Federal territory, and should help control false results, while all the Provinces except NWFP, and Azad Kashmir have agreed upon one Board. NWFP has opted for a slight change, while Sindh would implement the standard with a one-year delay and in Punjab 25000 graduates teachers have been inducted, on irregular basis to discourage any detrimental unionism tendencies.