A National Assembly panel was told that 17,000 children in 30 Islamabad union councils remain out of school. The committee also reviewed private school regulation, free admissions and the Cambridge Mathematics paper leak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Education was informed that 17,000 children in 30 union councils of the federal capital are still out of school, while Cambridge has acknowledged the leak of a Mathematics examination paper and has been asked to provide a detailed report on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The committee met under the chair of Acting Chairperson Syeda Aamna Batool. Officials from the Ministry of Education, the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA), the Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC), and the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) briefed members on a range of education-related issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Director General of Education Junaid Akhlaq told the committee that admissions to federal government educational institutions were being carried out strictly on merit. He said there was capacity for 32,000 students in these institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the meeting, committee member Shazia Soomro voiced dissatisfaction over what she described as the ministry\u2019s lack of seriousness. She noted that committee members attended meetings regularly, but said neither the secretary nor the minister was present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former PEIRA chairman Ghulam Ali Mallah told the committee that 50 unregistered schools had been identified in Islamabad and that inspection teams had already been formed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said private schools would, under the law, be required to reserve 10 per cent of admissions free of charge, adding that the mechanism for this had now been finalised. The committee was told that 500 out of 1,600 schools had already submitted reports regarding free admissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mallah further said that out-of-school children who passed the required tests would also be eligible for free education in elite schools. He added that efforts to eliminate narcotics from educational institutions would be carried out in coordination with the Anti-Narcotics Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The committee was also told that the survey on out-of-school children had been completed. Joint Secretary Education Hameed Niazi said a target had been set to enrol all 17,000 such children in schools by May 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The issue of admissions to federal educational institutions also led to a heated discussion, with committee members saying the online portal system created difficulties for parents from low-income backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members also expressed serious concern over the Cambridge examination paper leak controversy. IBCC officials informed the committee that Cambridge had admitted the leak of a Mathematics paper and that a comprehensive report had been sought from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commenting on the issue, Shazia Soomro said Pakistan\u2019s own examination system had long faced criticism, but questions were now also being raised about the credibility of the Cambridge system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meeting reviewed these issues as part of a broader discussion on access, regulation and oversight in the federal capital\u2019s education sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A National Assembly panel was told that 17,000 children in 30 Islamabad union councils remain out of school. The committee also reviewed private school regulation, free admissions and the Cambridge Mathematics paper leak. ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Education was informed that 17,000 children in 30 union councils of the federal capital are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7372,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7370\/revisions\/7372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}