Stakeholders’ consensus emphasised to frame national education policy

Islamabad: A high level meeting of National Advisory Committee to formulate National Education Policy took place here on Monday.

The meeting was chaired by Special Secretary Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training Mohyuddin Wani. Wani said that a consensus should be reached with all the stakeholders to ensure that a uniform policy can be made which addresses the need of the hour. He said that all stakeholders including the health ministry should also be added in this forum. He said that the policy has to be all encompassing and should address all facets of skill education, vocational and professional training.

He said that it should include a comprehensive strategy and an actionable plan to progressively diminish and ultimately eliminate the number of out of school children (OOSC), within next five years. Simultaneously, implement a program for mainstreaming. TVET education with flexibility for students to transition into alternate technical streams. Special Secretary said that the curriculum should be in accordance with international learning standards, prioritising a reduction in syllabi for compulsory subjects. Embrace concept - based learning with a focus on creativity and real-world application, encouraging diverse sources of information and digital content aligned with global standards.

Furthermore, the forum agreed to include a strategy for extending National Educational Curriculum (NEC) to Madaris to ensure main stream education and TVET for Madrasahs students along with due credits for religious education. In addition there should be a performance audit of schools/teachers and TVET institutes through a third party consultant be carried out for categorisations of schools, to include public, private, madaris etc. It was also decided that a joint working group would be formulated to ensure that work on the formulation and implementation starts immediately.

The meeting included all provincial stakeholders in addition with representatives from HEC, NAVTTV, NCC, FDE, SIFC, DGRE etc. The meeting was chaired by the Special Secretary of Education, and it was decided that further involvement of public and private partners including other ministries is also needed.