Single National Curriculum
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government seems hell bent on its pet programme of introducing a Single National Curriculum (SNC) for the education system in Pakistan. The stated and unstated objectives of this enterprise are unclear, subject to confusion, divorced from the ground realities, and a classic case of misplaced concreteness. For a start, after the idea of the SNC was floated and discussed in the public sphere, great resistance arose to the idea of doing away with the ‘O’ and ‘A’ level examinations and their replacement by a uniform examination system countrywide. These foreign examinations have proved over time to be the entry point for students to be accepted for higher studies abroad because of their quality education that no indigenous system has so far been able to match by and large with some notable exceptions. Obviously, the objection raised against this ‘U-turn’ by the government is that it negates the principle of equality in educational opportunities, but the chimera of equal opportunity cannot be used to throw the baby out with the bath water without any equally excellent system to replace it. If and when Pakistan can boast an indigenous stream of education and examinations to rival ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels, the changeover can be contemplated but not till then. Wherein resides the superiority of the foreign examinations? Not in the curriculum (although theirs is far better than our existing or proposed one), but in their philosophy of education. That philosophy stresses comprehension, reasoning and problem-solving. Our systems still rely heavily on rote learning (by no means confined to the madrassas). There is also a big gap in our knowledge of the implementation and financing plan for the proposed introduction of the SNC. The ‘integration’ of madrassas in the SNC runs the risk of casting a seminarial hue on the secular schools too, especially as the ever-present stress on religious learning has been recently strengthened by the introduction of laws in Punjab for this purpose. Critical reasoning, inquiry, questioning are critical for the development of young minds but anathema to religious instruction. As it is, Pakistan stands at 125thout of 130 countries worldwide in the sphere of education, with around 23 million children still out of school.
While the quantitative goal of universal literacy requires investment in bricks and mortar and raising the required number of adequately trained teachers, the qualitative requirement is not to standardise a lower quality of education in the name of social levelling and equality, as the SNC threatens to do. The underlying thought behind SNC appears to be the quixotic notion that it will unify the country. Therein lies perhaps the SNC’s greatest single fallacy, divorced as it is from the ground realities. Like it or not, Pakistan is a multi-national state, ignoring which has cost us heavily in the past and, if we do not learn the lessons of such experience, threatens more and greater discord in future. As it is, the success track record in achieving universal literacy globally shows that the medium of instruction is a key variable. Instruction in the mother tongue till class five at least, with Urdu and English taught as subjects, promises rapid progress in inducting the out of school children’s populace and their acquiring literacy much more easily and quickly. Teaching Urdu and English as subjects would provide the base for instruction in these languages at the higher stages of the education ladder.
The government claims it has conducted a wide consultation on the SNC with experts. Yet the most prominent voices critical of the inadequacies of our education system seem to have been ignored. Great disquiet exists whether the SNC is a well thought through good idea, its outcomes, potential for fostering disharmony, and reservations about the government ability to implement it. Given this state of affairs, perhaps the government and the country would be better served by going back to the drawing board instead of embarking on what appears a half-baked and faulty approach.
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