Govt to start registration of seminaries soon: Shafqat Mehmood

Minister says reforms would soon be introduced to ensure equal educational opportunities for madrassa students

ISLAMABAD: Federal Education and Professional Training Minister Shafqat Mehmood on Monday said the government would soon start the registration process of seminaries and introduce reforms to ensure equal educational opportunities for the students studying there.

"We are committed to ensure the contribution of seminaries in the national development," he said, while addressing media persons after convening the “Inter Provincial Education Ministerial Conference (IPEMC)” in the federal capital.

Mehmood said that there were 32,000-35,000 madrassa in the country for which a directorate general had been established in Islamabad and that 16 offices would be set up across the country for their registration.

“The registration process will be completed in the next four years. Registration of 2000-3000 madrassa will be completed in the first year,” he declared.

He said that the federal government would assist the madrassa in opening bank accounts and solving the problem of foreign student visas.

Plan to overhaul madrassa education finalised: minister

“For this purpose three sub-committees have been set up which will move all matters forward in a positive manner. The number of registration offices may be increased in the coming days,” he noted.

The minister said that the government had established the National Curriculum Council (NCC) under which the new curriculum from class one to five was being prepared and would be introduced by March next year.

“All the stakeholders including public and private sector schools and madrassa have been taken on board while preparing the new curriculum.

All public and private schools and religious seminaries will be bound to adopt the national curriculum,” he observed.

He said the government was also planning to launch a comprehensive programme in collaboration with World Bank across the country to ensure the enrollment of out-of-school children besides provision of quality education.

In order to ensure the announcement of results by August 15, Mehmood said that a uniform calendar had been prepared and circulated to all the intermediate and secondary education boards.

He further said Higher Education Commission had also bound all the universities to complete the admission process by September 15 right after the announcement of intermediate and secondary boards result.