Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood on Thursday said the National Curriculum Council (NCC) was coordinating with the provinces, administrative units, and other stakeholders for the development of the Single National Curriculum (SNC).

The minister said that arrangements were being made to bring the curriculum at par and align with international standards, including a comparison between national curriculum with Singapore and Cambridge curricula, adding that all the findings were incorporated in the SNC.

The minister further said that the consultative process was carried out with the engagement of stakeholders from all provinces and areas including the public and private sector, the federal government educational institutions (FGEIs).

He said that under phase-1 first draft of SNC for grade 1-5 was developed and shared with all the provinces and the University of Cambridge for their input and feedback. Provincial and area workshops were subsequently held in all federating units from November, 2019 to January, 2020.

He said that the services of Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) were hired to ensure the value-addition of SNC and development of teacher training modules and assessment framework.

“Input and feedback received from all federating units, FGEIs, AKU-IED and Cambridge University were then collated and consolidated in the second draft of SNC. This formed the basis for discussions and consensus-building during the National Conference on SNC February 11-14, 2020” he said.

The minister further said that the first phase Curriculum for grade 1-5 was presented to Prime Minister Imran Khan in March, who expressed his satisfaction over the completion of the first phase within the given timeframe, adding that after completion of textbooks on the basis of SNC phase-1 for grade 1-5, the uniform curriculum at primary level will be implemented throughout the country from March 2021.

Similar to the first phase, SNC for grade 6-8 will be developed and implemented throughout Pakistan by March 2022 and for 9 to 12 by March 2023.