Shrouq Tariq
It is evidenced that a country’s development is mainly based on its people and its resources. However, it eventually depends on the people only, as to what extent they can use the scarce resources efficiently in order to attain a rapid rate of development and in innovation. As citizens of a country play the most important role in influencing the status of the country; education is responsible for shaping a person. Therefore, education is the pillar of any country, it plays a main role in technological developments and imparts various skills, values, and awareness. If a country has a better literacy rate, it will lead to a drop in the unemployment rate and greater GDP growth. Today, Pakistan faces numerous issues which include terrorism, discrimination, global warming, poverty, and gender inequality. These problems could be eliminated through proper education for everyone in the country which would lead to a better society and state, with higher standards of living. In the long term, education secures greater benefits. Educated kids today will develop a very civilized and moral society tomorrow.
When it comes to good, proper education Pakistan faces a lot of issues despite making many plans in the past. These issues include lack of uniformity of the syllabus taught in schools, directionlessness, does not focus on skill improvements, outdated curricula, lack of professional teachers, an alarming number of dropouts, poor supervision, lack of resources, low budgetary allocation for education and corruption.
What is the Single National Curriculum?
The current Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, during his campaign, highlighted the issues of education in Pakistan and promised the citizens that he will bring about improvements to the system of education. In Pakistan, the last time curriculum was revised was in 2011 so, PTI made an effort to make improvements to the system by introducing the ‘Single National curriculum (SNC)’. The vision is, One system of Education for all, in terms of curriculum, medium of instruction and a common platform of assessment so that all children have a fair and equal opportunity to receive high quality education. Single National Curriculum is a pace in that direction.
Phases of implementation of the Single National Curriculum
Four-Day National Conference on Single National Curriculum from February 11-14, 2020 and the draft was finalized and signed by all the representatives from Federating Units, FGEIs (Federal Government Educational Institutions), Private Sector, and Ittehad Tanzimat ul Madaris Pakistan.
Single National Curriculum is being developed in three phases:
- Phase I: Development of SNC and textbooks Pre I-V (March 2021)
- Phase II: Development of SNC and textbooks VI-VIII (March 2022)
- Phase III: Development of SNC and textbooks IX-XII (March 2023)
Except Sindh, the SNC had been launched by the PM of Pakistan on 16th of August 2021 from class I to 5 in public, private schools and seminaries.
Why is a Single National Curriculum necessary?
The curriculum is primarily based on the manifesto of the PTI government which raised the issue of a Single National Curriculum to eliminate the class conflicts i.e. secular vs religious, private vs public differences in the education process. They believed that it will result in a levelled playing field for all and will improve social and economic mobility.
A Single curriculum for multiple provinces.
But the SNC remained a debatable issue before being implemented. It began with the 18th amendment, according to which education is regarded as a provincial purview because of it. The provincial textbook board must evaluate and the province can reject the unified curriculum as the Sindh government did, because they say that SNC was a part of PTI’s manifesto. Therefore, it is not obligatory for the Sindh government to fulfil the election manifesto of PTI. Further adding, the minister of Sindh said that they will only go with the good changes in the science subject but, in social studies, each province should have its own history, culture, and heroes. Hence, the noble cause under the slogan Aik Quam, Aik Nisaab( One Nation, One Curriculum), has become a divisive issue on its own. Meanwhile, in Lahore, elite private schools comprising the Aitchison College, have started their new semester without the SNC, even though the government ordered the private education sector to follow suite.
Another concern is that the formulators of the new curriculum did not keep in the minorities of the country. Article 22 (1) of the Constitution of Pakistan states that “No person attending any educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction, or take part in any religious ceremony or attend religious worship, if such instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other than his own”. However, the curriculum being taught in the country before and even with the new syllabus the books have incorporated Qur’anic verses and Islamic content in Science subjects as well, which eventually does not change. The bigger concern for many is that religious content is mixed into compulsory subjects. It is being said that the SNC course books have been ratified by a team working under the national curriculum council with an Islamic scholar as a mandatory member to point out what is religiously or culturally ‘unacceptable’ in the curriculum, which sparked protest and those who protested were met with a spiteful campaign. There is fake news being circulated on the internet that the books have images and text that discriminates against women too.
Many have raised concerns over the unequal teaching standards of private and public schools. Experts say that even though the teaching material would be standardized, the performance of teachers is still different. However, the government took the initiative to tackle this problem and started training 300 teachers who will become master trainers and train other teachers.
According to the new curriculum set, it is recommended that other than English, Mathematics and Science, all subjects should be taught in the national language, Urdu, like it is in countries like China and Japan, which worried many parents. Many parents supported the idea but opposed the fact that the compulsory subjects are going to be taught in Urdu instead of English.
The government has debunked most of these concerns being raised by the concerned parties. The Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training released a press note on their official Twitter account in a bid to counter what in their opinion was a ‘concerted campaign’ to ‘discredit the significant effort made by the government to implement the Single National Curriculum’ (SNC). These included: the role of Ulema in reassessing science books, the staffing of Qari’s from madrassas in all schools and finally the discrimination against minorities in the SNC. Adding to this the minister also said that fake news is being circulated on purpose. The government says that it would do well to take the criticism over the SNC as an opportunity to fix it and make further improvements.
The image below is a picture of the Urdu book showing one scenario with two illustrations, one with Hijab and the other without, keeping in mind both, Hijabis and Non-Hijabis. This shows freedom of choice and liberty regarding religious practice and liberty for women to choose.
Even though this is a positive initiative taken by the government to improve the education system in Pakistan, what it needs to do is maintain the standard in the coming years. Curriculum should be assessed on annual basis. Merely changing learning standards is not enough, other factors like school environment, teaching and evaluation methods etc. should also be taken into account.
Source: The facts and information related to the SNC were taken from Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training.
Shrouq Tariq is the Research Analyst and writer at Matrix Media. Her work has been published in number of national and international newspapers . She’s also a member of the Matrix Media editorial board. She is currently completing her MPhil in Defense and Strategic Studies from Quaid-i-Azam university. She tweets at @shrouqtariq
