ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The National Assembly was told on Thursday that the registration process of Madaris (religious seminaries) will be initiated in the first week of March 2020.
Replying to a question asked by James Iqbal of Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal Pakistan (MMAP), the Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood told the House that so far, no Madras has been registered/affiliated with the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training.
However, he added, that the Directorate General of Religious Education has been established along-with its 16 Regional Offices and Staff has been posted from National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) and Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) on attachment basis.
The minister told that the Registration Form, agreed by the Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training and the Ittehad Tanzeemat-ul-Madaris Pakistan (ITMP), has been printed by the Printing Corporation of Pakistan on January 20, 2020.
To another question about the real causes of the declining educational system particularly with reference to the declining passing percentage of Central Superior Service (CSS), Shafqat Mahmood replied that no empirical study/evidence suggests that the consistent decline in passing percentage of the CSS exam is related to outdated higher education sector of the County.
While it needs to be admitted that there exists a lot of room for improvement in the quality of higher education in Pakistan compared with world’s leading universities, it would not be appropriate to directly link higher education quality with passing percentage of the CSS exam sans a thorough and objective research, the minister added.