“Single National Curriculum (SNC) has been chaotic, self-contradictory and misleading,” says Amjad Nazeer, educationist and the head of the Institute of Development Research and Corresponding Capabilities (IDRAC). He was speaking at the launch ceremony of a booklet named, ‘Single National Curriculum: Critical Analysis and Policy Recommendation’, in Multan.
Stressing the poor state of public education in the country, he said that adequate budgeting, construction of required number of new schools, the provision of missing facilities, elimination of ghost schools and teachers and absenteeism, extending modern teaching-learning aids along with labs and laboratories are far more important than enforcing the so called SNC.
With the province of Sindh already regretting implementing SNC and Balochistan’s meaningful silence – the Curriculum already ceases to be ‘national’, he said. Although the federal and provincial government of Punjab have, eventually, allowed private publishers to print their own books – though having sought NOC – there are multiple bureaucratic obstacles along with associated fees for revision of the textbooks.
Complicating the process further, powers of the Mutahida Ulema Board (MUB) in Punjab have been extended to not only assess the content in Islamiyat books but to assess the same in social science subjects as well, Amjad Nazeer said.
To baffle public and private systems alike – the Government of Punjab has, after a prolonged hubbub, reportedly allowed private schools to print their own books and continue with their previous curriculum with entitlement of awarding ‘core plus’ status to those adopting SNC. If that is the case then what has been the whole fuss about, he asked.