Education Policy Draft Rejected

Draft education policy rejected by federal cabinet
Islamabad, June 11: The federal cabinet has rejected the new National Education Policy and directed the Ministry of Education to re-submit fresh proposals after seeking suggestions from educationists.

Official sources said on Wednesday that the cabinet in a special meeting chaired by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani opined that the new education policy does not represent the concerned quarters, including educationists, intellectuals, the provincial government and teachers' unions, which was mandatory for it.

According to sources, the Ministry of Education tabled the same proposals prepared by former education minister Ahsan Iqbal.

While rejecting the draft of education policy, the cabinet has directed the education ministry to seek recommendations of the concerned quarters to make it more effective.

Sources said that the new policy draft would take another two to three months after which it would be tabled before the cabinet for approval.

There is a chance that the new education policy would be announced after four to five months, sources said.

Similarly, recommendation draft of the policy also did not contain comments of the chief ministers of all the four provinces, which was a mandatory obligation.

Commenting over the issue, Ministry of Education Spokesman Aamir Raza confirmed the report and the reasons behind rejection of the draft of the new education policy by the cabinet. He said as per directions of the cabinet, the ministry would approach the related educationists, union and associations representatives and all the four provincial heads of the respective education departments. "Till then the old system would be followed in all educational institutions including colleges and schools at federal and provincial levels," he added. The News