Islamabad: March 30:Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak Wednesday decried what he called concerted propaganda of so-called controversial changes in the educational courses.

The minister, who was elected member of the provincial assembly from the platform of Awami National Party (ANP), also strongly rejected some reports that an article on Quaid-i-Azam had been deleted from the fifth class course.

“There is absolutely no truth in these reports and statements by some religious groups that we have deleted certain Quranic verses and Hadiths from the school or college syllabi,” the provincial minister said when The News contacted him on telephone.He pointed out holy verses would remain part of the 9th and 10th courses whereas they had also increased the number of Hadiths from 20 to 25 in the courses.

The minister noted that two articles in Pakistan Studies of 9th class would also be remained part of the syllabus. One article is pertained to various shades of the Quaid’s personality and the other is on his critical role in the creation of Pakistan, he added.

“We can’t delete these articles on the Quaid, who played a crucial role in the making of our motherland,” the minister maintained. Babak said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the first province to push for a systematic review of the curriculum through consultations.

He said as the government believed in consultations with the stakeholders through advertisements in media, it sought views and suggestions of educationists, religious scholars and literati on the subject. He claimed his province was like a role model for other three provinces, for it took lead on this count.

The minister noted the 18th amendment had empowered the federating units to have a review of their courses, as the Ministry of Education had been devolved accordingly. To a question, he said their particular focus was on how to promote religious tolerance and national unity to do away with the extremist trends in the society.

He was hopeful the process of review would be accomplished within next two to three months to give a final shape to the comprehensive review of the educational courses. When he was reminded of a statement by ANP President Asfandyar Wali Khan that his party and the government would give pen and book in the hands youngsters to shun extremism and militancy, he said they were working on those lines.

“You know, how easy it is to destroy a school or college building and how difficult to reconstruct it or build a new one. But we are focused on rebuilding educational institutions, which were destroyed by the militants,” the minister added.

He said 60 percent work on scores of schools had been completed and the government was working on war footing to complete reconstruction as soon as possible. He said literacy was a very effective tool to fight out militancy, extremism and intolerance from the society.The news.