Unfinished devolution: Education ministry to get back most subjects
Secretaries agree to hand 18 subjects back to ministry.
The National Language Authority and the Urdu Dictionary Board will remain with their respective ministries. According to the IPC Secretary Ijaz Chaudhry, foreign office representatives will also attend the next meeting to decide the matter. STOCK IMAGE
ISLAMABAD:
The Ministry of Education and Professional Training is likely to regain control of 18 education-related subjects which were handed over to other ministries during the devolution process in 2010.
The ministry has been demanding control of 22 bodies which were handed over to other divisions when the education ministry was devolved to the provinces after the 18th Amendment.
The secretaries’ committee on December 18 had formed a body to work out the issue. The four-member body comprised secretaries of ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC), Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), education, and the Planning Division.
According to a member, the committee in its meeting last week, agreed to hand over most of the subjects — like girl and boy scouts, youth activities, and welfare of Pakistani students abroad — to the education ministry while education attaches’ offices in Pakistani missions abroad will remain with the IPC Division.
The federal education ministry which was devolved to provinces in 2010 was re-established in November 2011 after the Supreme Court maintained that the government could not absolve itself of the responsibility of providing education under Article 25-A.
Issues arising from the devolution of education remain unresolved, with the ministry itself having been renamed four times in four years.
Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training will get the Federal College of Education, Department of Libraries, and functions such as international exchange of students and teachers and National Institute of Scientific and Technical Education. The subjects were with the Cabinet Division, IPC Division, CADD and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Whether the hand over of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) and the Inter-Board Committee of Chairpersons to the education ministry will be discussed in the next meeting is uncertain.
The National Language Authority and the Urdu Dictionary Board will remain with their respective ministries. According to the IPC Secretary Ijaz Chaudhry, foreign office representatives will also attend the next meeting to decide the matter.
He said the government itself should resolve the fate of FDE. Though opposition parties have criticised the education ministry’s “anti-devolution” steps, education minister Balighur Rehman maintains that it is necessary for better integration of state policies.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 14th, 2015.
The Ministry of Education and Professional Training is likely to regain control of 18 education-related subjects which were handed over to other ministries during the devolution process in 2010.
The ministry has been demanding control of 22 bodies which were handed over to other divisions when the education ministry was devolved to the provinces after the 18th Amendment.
The secretaries’ committee on December 18 had formed a body to work out the issue. The four-member body comprised secretaries of ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC), Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), education, and the Planning Division.
According to a member, the committee in its meeting last week, agreed to hand over most of the subjects — like girl and boy scouts, youth activities, and welfare of Pakistani students abroad — to the education ministry while education attaches’ offices in Pakistani missions abroad will remain with the IPC Division.
The federal education ministry which was devolved to provinces in 2010 was re-established in November 2011 after the Supreme Court maintained that the government could not absolve itself of the responsibility of providing education under Article 25-A.
Issues arising from the devolution of education remain unresolved, with the ministry itself having been renamed four times in four years.
Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training will get the Federal College of Education, Department of Libraries, and functions such as international exchange of students and teachers and National Institute of Scientific and Technical Education. The subjects were with the Cabinet Division, IPC Division, CADD and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Whether the hand over of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) and the Inter-Board Committee of Chairpersons to the education ministry will be discussed in the next meeting is uncertain.
The National Language Authority and the Urdu Dictionary Board will remain with their respective ministries. According to the IPC Secretary Ijaz Chaudhry, foreign office representatives will also attend the next meeting to decide the matter.
He said the government itself should resolve the fate of FDE. Though opposition parties have criticised the education ministry’s “anti-devolution” steps, education minister Balighur Rehman maintains that it is necessary for better integration of state policies.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 14th, 2015.