Ministry Slammed for 70-Year Failure to Formalize Ties with Cambridge, British Council

ISLAMABAD (Nadeem Tanoli) Ministry of Professional and Technical Training came under heavy fire during a recent parliamentary subcommittee meeting after it was revealed that the ministry lacks any formal legal agreement or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with either Cambridge International Education or the British Council—despite more than seven decades of their operations in the country.

The revelation came amid parliamentary hearings convened to address the fallout from the recent leak of Cambridge exam papers. Lawmakers identified the absence of a documented framework as a fundamental administrative failure that contributed to a lack of regulatory clarity and poor crisis response.

An Officer from the Ministry of Federal Education confirmed the lapse during the session, stating, “I have checked with all the wings in the ministry. It has been determined that no such document exists with us.” The admission followed weeks of delay in responding to repeated requests from the subcommittee, prompting visible frustration from its chairperson MNA Sabheen Ghoury.

“What is the reason? Why is it being delayed?” the chairperson asked, condemning the ministry’s inaction and lack of preparedness.

While representatives from the British Council maintained that their operations in Pakistan fall under a broader government-to-government agreement signed via the Economic Affairs Division in February 2024, lawmakers insisted that the Ministry of Education should have direct and binding documentation in place.

“This is the obligation of the Federal Education Department,” the chairperson stated emphatically. “You are dealing with education. This is the main problem—the communication problem—because they didn’t even sign any MOU.”

The lack of formal agreements was directly tied to deeper governance issues, including confusion over syllabus approval authority between the National Curriculum Council (NCC) and the Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC). Lawmakers argued that the Ministry’s passive oversight has allowed jurisdictional gaps and regulatory ambiguity to persist unchecked.

“The ministry never thought to ask how these organizations are operating,” the chairperson remarked. “An issue came up, we raised the point, and only then was it raised. I am surprised at the representatives here.”

In response, the committee issued a series of urgent directives for the Ministry of Federal Education:

• Draft and sign a comprehensive MOU with all international education providers operating in Pakistan.
• Establish a centralized archiving system for all legal and regulatory documentation.
• Lead the creation of a third-party investigation mechanism for future exam-related breaches.
• Collect all provincial-level agreements involving Cambridge and the British Council in preparation for the next full committee meeting.

The meeting concluded with a strong message: the Ministry must now take decisive steps to reverse decades of administrative inertia and build a transparent, accountable framework for its relationships with foreign education boards. The burden of reform, lawmakers agreed, rests firmly on the Ministry’s shoulders.