Pashto not removed from grade five curriculum: Ghani

High-level meeting to be held today to discuss matter further

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government on Sunday rebuffed accusations of abolishing Pashto as a subject from grade five curriculum.

The government said they did not include a Pashto language paper in upcoming exams for grade five across the province. But Pashto will be taught in schools as a language.

While talking to The Express Tribune on Sunday, Special Assistant to K-P Chief Minister Mushtaq Ghani said the government of K-P initiated a universal examination system (a board system of sorts) in 2014 for students of grade five in selected schools of various districts. He added this was done to evaluate the knowledge and learning skills of students while also keeping tabs on the performance of teachers. Students of government schools were bound to take English, Urdu, mathematics and science exams.

Ghani shared the universal primary assessment for grade five students was then extended to the entire province. The number of subjects was increased with an addition of social studies and Islamiat to the list.

Ghani added the K-P government would never abolish Pashto language as a subject from school curricula. He said the language will be taught in schools but not be part of universal assessment exams for grade five students; these exams start on March 7.

As the spokesperson of the K-P government, he denied all rumours circulating about the abolishment of Pashto language as a subject.

K-P Directorate of Curriculum and Teachers Education Bashir Hussain Shah told The Express Tribune a high-level meeting has been called on the subject at the education department’s office on Monday (today) where the matter will be discussed in greater detail.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2016.