Senate body for uniform system of education
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—The Senate Standing Committee on Education has called for a uniform system of education throughout the country to promote national cohesion and integration and to remove socio-economic disparities besides enabling all segments of the people to participate in the national development.
The Committee met at the Parliament House Friday with Senator Mrs. Razina Alam Khan in the chair. It observed that curriculum plays an important role in the system education and therefore the national curriculum should reflect wishes and aspirations of the people. Members of the Committee were of the view that the national curriculum should be implemented as soon as possible. It directed the Ministry to expedite the process of implementation from early childhood education to higher secondary school levels in all subjects. It also directed the Ministry of Education to take the stakeholders and provinces into confidence before proceeding any further as their input would help achieve the desired objectives. Members of the Committee also stressed the need that text books should be printed immediately as their non-availability would have negative impacts.
Earlier, the Education Secretary, informed the Committee about the progress made on national curriculum. He highlighted various salient features of the new scheme of study and said that the scheme consists of all emerging trends like human rights, population, environment, inter-faith harmony and other related aspects. He also informed the Committee about the National Textbook Policy.
Mr. Shams Kassim Lakha, Minister for Education and Science & Technology, speaking on the occasion agreed with the Committee that a uniform system of education is required to remove the sense of deprivation prevailing in the society.
The meeting was attended by Senators Mrs. Tahira Latif, Dr. Abdul Khaliq Pirzada, Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, S.M. Zafar, Dr. Muhammad Said, Maulvi Agha Muhamamd, Sajid Mir and Prof. Muhammad Ibrahim Khan.Minister for Education, Dr. Shams Kassim Lakha. The Secretaries of the Ministry of Education Mr. Jahangir Bashar and Senate Mr. Raja Muhammad Amin and senior officials of the Ministry of Education were also present on the occasion.