Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood Thursday inaugurated Directorate General of Religious Affairs (DGRA) for registration of over 35,000 seminaries (Madaris), operating across the country. Talking to media persons, he said the seminaries had, in principle, agreed with the federal government initiative for bringing their students in the mainstream in order to ensure a uniform education system in the country.
‘It was historical day in the history of Pakistan as the government had achieved another milestone of bringing uniform education system in the country’ he added. He said the religious seminaries had affirmed that their students would appear in middle, matric and intermediate level examination of Federal Board like other public, private schools. The passed students of Madrassa would be awarded the degrees of matric and intermediate, he added.
He added the government would provide all-out support including financial and teaching to Madrassa’s after formal registration. To a query, he said the government had established National Curriculum Council (NCC) under which the new curriculum from class one to five was being prepared which would be introduced by March 2020. All stakeholders including public and private sector schools, Madrassas, concerned departments had been taken on board while preparing new curriculum, he added.
Replying to another question Shafqat said the public, private schools and religious seminaries would be bound to adopt One National Curriculum. Directorate General of Religious Education has been established in Islamabad under the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training while its country-wide16 Regional Registration Centres for registering seminaries would be established at Karachi, Sukkur, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Loralai, Peshawar, Kohat, Muzaffarabad and Gilgit etc.’ To a question, the minister said that the government had allocated Rs two billion for the project.
He lauded the efforts of Ulma-e-Karam, and other religious organizations for profound cooperation with the government in achieving the task of bringing uniformity in educational system. He also appreciated the role of religious seminaries for playing their vital role in provision of education especially to the poor. The Islamic subjects for the students of religious seminaries would be finalized by the Madrassas, he added.
He said that all Madaris were bound to register themselves with the education ministry as no seminary would be allowed to function without registration. All seminaries were required to open their accounts in scheduled banks and make transactions through banks and the government would provide all out support, he said.
