The Sindh Education Department has decided to start the upcoming academic session 2025 from April 1, and has reduced the syllabus for the current session by 25%. As part of this decision, the matric and intermediate annual exams for the 2024 session, as well as exams for classes one to eight, will be held based on only 75% of the syllabus. Additionally, winter holidays have been revised and will now be observed from December
Child Rights in Focus
RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has urged the federal government to complete pending work on the Rawalpindi Mother and Child Hospital before handing it over to provincial authorities. A senior official of the health department told Dawn that there were two proposals to make the hospital functional. One was to convert it into a general hospital to lessen the burden on three main hospitals of the garrison city including Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital
The Punjab government has decided to bind the public sector schools in the province to give admissions to differently-abled students on a priority basis. The initiative is part of an inclusive education policy set to be launched by the provincial government. According to officials, the admissions of differently-abled students will begin in the new academic year. Before the admissions, training of school teachers will be conducted across the Punjab on dealing with students with
The kidnapper used a phone number to contact the family and demand ransom. ISLAMABAD: Tarnol police on January 3 claimed to have arrested an alleged kidnapper who was involved in the abduction of a minor child for Rs5 million ransom. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Muhammad Arsalan Shahzaib told a presser that the suspect, along with his accomplices, abducted the child with the intent to demand a ransom of Rs5m. Upon receiving the
In an impactful awareness session organized by PODA at the Tehsil Municipal Corporation hall, participants unanimously supported a proposed amendment to the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 2015. The amendment seeks to raise the minimum marriage age for girls from 16 to 18 years, ensuring a safer and more empowering future for young girls in Punjab. This proposed change aims to protect adolescent girls’ fundamental rights, including access to education, reproductive health, and employment
KARACHI: Raising alarm over multiple outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases and deaths of a large number of children across the country, health experts said on 4th January that these precious lives could have been easily saved if the governments at the federal and provincial levels had taken timely measures and plugged the loopholes in the routine immunisation programme. Representing major tertiary care private and public sector hospitals, the experts also said the health crisis continued
ALTHOUGH the move has caused panic among weary parents mortified at the thought of carting their children to Nadra offices, the interior ministry’s recent directive to incorporate biometric features into Form B for 10-18-year-olds is not without its merits. While the immediate catalyst for this decision remains unclear, historical instances of identity document misuse underscore the necessity for such measures. In 2009, a sitting federal minister faced allegations of human trafficking, involving the manipulation
MY daughter, who is seven and a half, is my latest teacher. She is in grade two. She gets a fair bit of homework and she is kind enough that she lets me sit with her when she is doing her homework. I started sitting with her to see if she needed any help. But now I sit with her largely to learn from her. She likes some subjects more than others. It is
ISLAMABAD: The Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Human Rights has expressed grave concern over the rapid growth of child begging, child abuse, and the increase of drugs in private and government educational institutions. The committee directed the Ministry of Human Rights and the National Commission on the Rights of the Child (NCRC) to take effective measures to curb such social evils. The Committee emphasized the need for effective legislation and the implementation
2025 will be a year of new openings and possibilities for Pakistan. Several initiatives started during the outgoing year will approach completion and offer opportunities to integrate economic and climate priorities. For Pakistan, economic and climate vulnerabilities reinforce each other and hence they must be addressed simultaneously. We will learn from our constraints while building upon our commitments and national resolve to strengthen our climate action. In 2025, we will have a chance to
ISLAMABAD: On the instructions of Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, it was decided on 01-January-2025 to introduce Form B with special security features for children above the age of 10 for the first time in history. As part of these new security features, fingerprints and photographs of children aged 10 and above will now be mandatory for Form B. The issuance of the upgraded Form B registration certificate will begin in phases starting January 15.
ISLAMABAD: The Universal Healthcare (UHC) Monitoring Report for Pakistan 2024 – a yearly report that assesses and monitors the progress of the country’s health sector – has revealed that only half of Pakistan’s population has access to UHC. The country lagged far behind in achieving the global target of over 80pc, said the report, which was prepared in collaboration between the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination and the World Health Organisation