Acquiring good education is the constitutional right of every Pakistani individual. Public education in Pakistan has made education a tool of nation-building at the cost of critical thinking at the expense of coexistence. Country’s education policies and curriculums have always been something to debate about. Pakistani governments have been trying very hard for homogenizing education and it is evident in its policies and is the central premise of the Single National Curriculum put forward by the current government led by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) party.
Educational disparity is one of the factor that is halting the social growth of Pakistan, that is return has negative impact of the economy. Since the Single National Curriculum (SNC) was announced in Pakistan lately, it has been a matter of discussion for educationists, academia, and media. The discussion revolves around the question of why Pakistan needs a curriculum set by the federal government when education was decentralized to the provinces through the 18th constitutional amendment in 2010. Now the question arises that single national curriculum is merely a slogan or government of Pakistan is taking concrete steps to make it happen?
The Single National Curriculum (SNC) is all about Pakistan which is free of educational inequalities, where education much similar to international trends in teaching, learning and assessments, that plays a vital role in developing analytical skills, promotes critical thinking and creativity in students, and that is far away from repetition memorization. A Pakistan where it doesn’t matter whether an individual has attended an elite private school, a public sector school or a madrassah run for Islamic teachings. It is basically a concept of giving same kind of education to every school child that will allow them to have the equal opportunities in practical life.
There are many issues that need to addressed regarding this matter. Till date, the new SNC has been approved and announced for grades one to fifth so far, and flaws in the policy are pointed out by many. Education policymakers need to change their concept of quality education. quality education. A child who is just been to school, is not familiar with English language, should not be taught in English. Furthermore, instead of memorization, they need to introduce teaching practices that promote critical thinking in students.
One of the goal of SNC is that madrassas will be brought within the domain of formal schooling in the wake of an agreement between the Ministry of Education and the federation of religious seminaries that comprises five major boards of madrassas representing different schools of thought. This agreement, it is maintained, will help hundreds of thousands of seminary students get the same education as other students in the country and allow them to appear in board exams. As per media interviews by the curriculum development team, some 35,000 seminaries will get registered as schools and will have their bank accounts opened. These students will be given degrees by Higher Education Commission.
According to SNC, English is to be taught as a language, not a subject. This means that language is a carrier of a particular ideology and civilization. Under the new curriculum, English is to be taught as a bundle of grammatical rules and a means of communication only. Urdu is taught as a subject. The SNC ignores Pakistan’s cultural diversity and deems languages other than Urdu unworthy of either educational or cultural value. It mentions the “promotion of diversity of culture and languages especially regional languages of Pakistan” in the Urdu grade 1-5 curriculum. Languages not labeled as regional languages will be ignored.
We can only speculate who much difference this curriculum change will make
by: Abeer Arshad
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