Daily Times

The government has unveiled a Single National Curriculum (SNC) for school education in the country. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government started its tenure with an Education Policy Framework, highlighting reforms in four priority areas in education. These were: Putting all the out-of-school children in schools, as required by Article 25 A-of the Constitution; eliminating apartheid in education by introducing a uniform curriculum; enhancing the quality of education; and emphasising technical and vocational education. Before Government, PTI leaders were pretty vocal about their desire to introduce a uniform education system in Pakistan, ‘Yuksaan Taleemi Nizam’ meaning the uniform education system for all students, irrespective of their economic and social background. The slogan was attractive and no sane person could disagree with it because the need to eliminate – or at least reduce – discrimination in education was a sound proposition.

The new curriculum documents carry a slogan of “One Nation One Curriculum”, implying that, without a single curriculum, we cannot remain one nation. In the current design of SNC, the federal government has transgressed upon the constitutional domain of the provinces. The Parliament, through the 18th constitutional amendment, had transferred the curriculum-making authority to provinces, restricting the federal government’s domain to the federal capital area and the educational institutions directly under its control.

The government’s slogan of reform is an end to educational apartheid, a laudable goal indeed. But unfortunately what has been approved and notified is a uniform curriculum, not a system of uniform education. The latter would also imply equal educational facilities for all – rich and poor, rural and urban, boys and girls. This is because each of the other priority areas would require a heavy financial commitment, which the meagre national allocation to education could not promise. On the other hand, introducing a new curriculum comes for free.

The new uniform curriculum, drafted by the PTI-led government, will be implemented in schools across Pakistan from April 2021, the uniform curriculum would be implemented from grade one to five in all schools Of public, private or religious. All Pakistan Private Schools Federation expressed serious concerns about the scope, content and practicality of implementing the new uniform curriculum. Unfortunately, The Single National Curriculum is superficial, serves an agenda, with fake consensus, that will erase all ethic identities and regional languages. Cambridge O-A levels and International Baccalaureate will not be touched by the PTI’s Single National Curriculum (SNC). This is fantastic news for elite class who once feared privileged education for the rich was in danger. Talk about equal opportunities for all turned out to be just talk – opium for the masses.

Take priority number one, with 22.8 million out of school children, according to Unicef data. Imagine the amount of resources needed to provide schooling to all 23 million out of school children

Under the federal government’s vision, the SNC is designed to bring all children on a level playing field while overcoming gaps in the currently followed National Curriculum 2006. Indeed, PTI curriculum is a near perfect copy of Gen Musharraf’s 2006 curriculum. Those in power forget that a single curriculum has existed in the country since the 1970s, at least on paper, and the current one is very similar and nothing more to that drafted in 2006 at the national level.

Although the medium of instruction for the new uniform curriculum unveiled by the federal government recently will be the national language of Urdu, but not in practice. Policy-makers believe that, even if English language is completely alien to a five-year-old child, he must nevertheless be instructed in English. This has never happened in 72 years of history that a uniform curriculum has been devised for students, in which Religious seminaries would also teach this curriculum to enable children studying there to join various fields. All madrassas are also being registered whereas work is also underway on the curriculum from grade sixth to eighth. Some 35,000 seminaries will get registered as schools and will have their bank accounts opened. The development of SNC is driven by the key considerations like teachings of Quran and Sunnah, constitutional framework, vision of Quaid and Iqbal, focus on values, life skills-based and inclusive education, as per Compulsory Teaching of the Holy Quran Act 2017.

Pakistan’s education system has two major problems. First, government-run schools have failed to deliver an education to young minds. Second, schooling at religious seminaries has remained unregulated for far too long. The state’s newly unveiled Single National Curriculum (SNC) addresses neither of the two problems. In Pakistan, most public schools are in dire need of investment, for the most basic of infrastructures, such as toilets, libraries and even laboratories. Then, there is the issue of out-of-school children. Pakistan’s student dropout percentage is 40 percent, at the primary level, one of the worst in the world. In contrast, madrassas provide free-of-cost education and with it, boarding, food and other facilities. But their students are ill-prepared for the job market.

To align all these in accordance with the 21st century requirements you need resources. The government education expenditure as a percentage of GDP is nearly 2 percent. On the UNDP human development index (HDI) we rank at 152. Uniform education system should mean that across the country all children – irrespective of their economic and social background – get uniform opportunities to quality education. Do provide in all schools: bathrooms that are functioning, clean drinking water, computer labs, decent seating arrangements and furniture, environment that is enabling and pleasant, electricity and fans, grounds to play, and high quality of internet service. Then make sure that in your supposedly uniform education system the methods of learning, teaching, and assessment are aligned with the 21-century practices and requirements.

Take priority number one, with 22.8 million out of school children, according to Unicef data. Imagine the amount of resources needed to provide schooling to all 23 million out of school children. Textbooks provided by the state are of abysmal quality, both in content as well as in presentation. A comparison between the books used in public schools with those used in the elite private schools easily shows the differential in quality. A heavy investment in high-quality teachers and textbooks is an essential requirement for improving educational quality. Especially when Pakistan’s largest province bans 100 textbooks for ‘blasphemous’ content. Books printed by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press are among 100 that have been banned by an education board in Pakistan for containing content deemed anti-Pakistan. Moreover, critical review of at least 10,000 books is in process.

Pakistan has the youngest population in the South Asia almost 64% are below 30. Yet we are worst performers in terms of technical and vocational education and training. Unfortunately, SNC stays silent on initiating a school vocational training programmes to ensure practical skills training at school level. As the prime minister himself admits, the best quality comes out of the English-medium private schools, which follow some foreign educational schemes, either the British O and A levels or the International Baccalaureate. Instead, the government chose the public school curriculum devised in 2006. In short, the best of the three standards has not been adopted, of course, neither was accompanied by implementation plans or financial outlays. Pakistan is severely deficient in all these areas.

The writer is the President of All Pakistan Private Schools Federation. President@pakistanprivateschools.com