LAHORE: Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said on Saturday that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) would be contacted for establishment of Iqbaliyat Department/Faculty in other varsities of the country, as currently Allama Iqbal Open University alone had Iqbaliyat Faculty.
Chairing 53rd meeting of Governing Body of Iqbal Academy Pakistan (IAP) here at Aiwan-e-Iqbal, Mahmood underlined the need for presenting the teachings/message of Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal in a more effective manner so as to increase students’ interest in this regard. Iqbal Society should be established in schools and colleges as well, he added.
He mentioned that government was also reviewing the existing educational curricula as it had been observed that students of English medium educational institutions, by and large, managed to grab most of the employment opportunities and excelled in competition examinations like CSS etc.
Shafqat Mahmood said that government was focused on introducing an equal system of education so as to enable the students of government’s educational institutions and of madrassahs to avail jobs and other opportunities. He said, “We are also analyzing the content of the uniform education curricula to be introduced across Pakistan”, adding that there should be five to six co-subjects which should be taught in all educational institutions and its certification should be mandatory for all.
Federal Education Minister also assured that IAP would be taken well on board in the formulation of the new and comprehensive curricula.
The Minister suggested the IAP keep its website up-to-date about Iqbal’s poetry and philosophy because it would provide an authentic platform to those who wanted to read Iqbal or conduct research on Iqbaliyat.
The meeting was told that IAP was organizing a National Conference on Allama Iqbal in Karachi by mid November this year. IAP Vice President Dr. Shahzad Qaisar, Federal Secretary for National History Engineer Aamir Raza and others members of the board were also present.
Later,the Federal Education Minister took a round of various sections of the IAP at Aiwan-e-Iqbal.
