ISLAMABAD: Federal Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi on Tuesday informed a Senate standing committee that Pakistan’s literacy rate was the lowest among south and west Asian countries and said that drastic initiatives were required to improve the situation. Members of the Senate Standing Committee on Education and Science and Technology expressed alarm when informed that the country had a 45 percent student dropout rate. The minister informed the committee that the National Education Census was initiated in November last year and data from all four provinces had been collected. The complete data would be made available on the Internet after evaluation, he said. The minister said that the national education policy was being reviewed to introduce uniform policies in all four provinces. He told the committee that under the new policy, Islamiat would be taught as an integrated subject in classes one and two and as a separate subject from class three onwards. “Subjects of ethics and morality will be taught to non-Muslim students instead of Islamiat. Computer courses are also being introduced as an elective subject from class IX and all controversial material will be removed from the syllabus in the new education policy,” the minister said.
| That's the important thing. Give 'em lots of Islamiat. Don't worry about the trifles, like reading and writing. |