From rxpgnews.com
Only women to teach at primary level in Pakistan
By IANS,
Jan 14, 2007 - 3:19:15 PM
Islamabad, Jan 14 - Pakistan is devising an education policy under which only women will teach at primary school level and Urdu will be offered as a language but not be the medium of instruction.
The science curriculum will be improved and upgraded to bring it on par with international standards, said Federal Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi Saturday. The history curriculum would be made 'realistic and objective'.
The process for history books is on. The books have been revised to give a 'soft image' of Pakistan abroad, the minister said.
Contemporary history, particularly pertaining to the birth of Pakistan nearly 60 years ago, will be written so as not to portray the religious minorities in a negative light, media reports quoted him as saying.
Much of the schooling in Pakistan is in Urdu and the regional languages - Punjabi, Pushto and Sindhi, among others.
The minister announced details of a nationwide sample survey by the National Education Assessment System -, a World bank-funded project, for grade 4 and grade 8 levels in areas of language, mathematics, science and social studies.
Based on this sampling design an assessment was carried out on a national sample of 11,954 students from 127 districts of the country. According to the findings, girls performed better than boys in language and science tests. Mathematics and social studies scores did not differ significantly by gender or location.
The results showed that urban students performed significantly better in language and social studies tests, but the maths and science scores did not differ significantly across rural and urban areas.
In the language tests, less than 10 percent of students passed three-fourth items on conceptual understanding and interpretation. In informative writing, less than 20 percent of students got a maximum score on this competency.
In mathematics, less than two percent were able to reason in settings involving application of concept definition and less than one percent were able to demonstrate the selection and application of mathematics processes in different situations correctly, The Daily Times reported.
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