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| India-Pakistan |
| Govt looking to Turkey on madrassa education |
| 2009-09-24 |
| The government is considering emulating the Turkish model to bring madrassa education into the mainstream, Daily Times has learnt. "The Turkish government has successfully modernised their religious institutions and Pakistan may benefit from the Turkish experience through exchange of visits," sources quoted Federal Education Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani as informing a recent cabinet meeting. They said Bijarani was responding to ministers who had asked whether the government's attempts to introduce contemporary subjects in the syllabi of madrassas was proving successful at modernising the religious schools. The government has been attempting to bring madrassa education into the mainstream through the introduction of modern subjects for several years, but madrassa organisations have been resisting these efforts, claiming they are a plan by foreign countries to make their students secular. The sources said the education minister had also quoted a UNESCO report that had revealed 50 million Pakistanis were illiterate, while 5 to 6 million children were not attending any schools. Pilot project: To a question on free education, the cabinet was informed the government had decided to launch a pilot project for residential schools to provide free education to the poor. "This pilot project will initially be launched in selected districts on behalf of the federal government and would be extended to other districts if it succeeds. Poor students would be given free education in these residential schools, including free books, uniforms and meals," Bijarani added. Massive increase: The minister said the education allocation in the budget was about two percent of the Gross Domestic Product. "Investment in education shall be increased to seven percent of the GDP by 2015," he said. The sources said the federal cabinet had also unanimously agreed that the term "handicapped children" should be replaced with the term "special children" in the education policy. |
| Posted by:Fred |