Single National Curriculum – An Analysis and Suggestions

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“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education” ~ (Mark Twain)

The incumbent government’s plan to implement a Single National Curriculum (SNC) throughout the country is at best populist and at worst madressah-isation of schools as Dr. A.H. Nayyar put it in his recent article in DAWN (Dissecting the Single National Curriculum).

As rightly stated by Dr. Nayyar, after the 18^th amendment, education is a provincial matter, therefore, the provinces either have to accept the SNC, reject it or improvise it according to their own requirements. However, one wonders what will happen if O/A Levels examination systems are asked to follow the SNC, will they agree to this? If they do, would the provinces agree to it? If the provinces won’t agree, then would the administrations of O/A Levels system introduce a different subject for each province? If nothing works out, would the O/A Levels system be banned altogether? The same goes for madressahs – the other end of the spectrum – would they all agree to a SNC and implement it considering they have many differences in interpretation and schools of thought?

If we are not ending the inequalities in our education system, then what’s the point of the SNC anyway?

In an online debate between Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy and Dr. Mariam Chughtai (an expert on education and one of the architects of the SNC), the latter has made it clear that the SNC is not about equality of education systems but a uniform standard for curriculum. So, if we are not ending the inequalities in our education system, then what was the point of the SNC anyway? What should have been done instead was to raise the bar, not lower it. If elite private schools/colleges are giving good education then it means good education is already existing in Pakistan, if it is existing in let’s say in the form of O/A Levels, then shouldn’t this opportunity be extended to students that were born in relatively humble households? Shouldn’t Matric/F.A/F.Sc or Madressah qualifications rival the standards of O/A Levels?

It is also apparent from Dr. A.H. Nayyar’s analysis that schools/colleges will have more religious content than even madressahs! In order to teach proper Nazra and higher level Islamiat, there will be a need to hire specialist Qaris/Mullahs as ordinary teachers cannot deliver adequately, one can imagine the change in environment of schools/colleges that will come about. Pakistan is a diverse country comprising different ethnicities, religions, languages and sects. We have experimented for over 40 years with mixing religion and politics with the education system and the results have not been satisfactory if not catastrophic in some cases; doing further experimentation will be dangerous for the social fabric and future of this country. If we look at India, they have deviated from their secular tradition that once gave them progress and good standing in the world, the same happened with Iran and Afghanistan in the late 1970s, why should we be making the same mistake or in fact repeat the same mistakes that we made in the 1980s?

The modern world is all about Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Our neighbours are going to Mars and the Moon but we are lagging behind despite having a head start in the Space Programme way back in the 1960s. Some people here might say that our actual aim should be the afterlife (i.e. Heaven) not this world. Very cosmological indeed and this is one of the main reasons why the Muslim world is backwards overall and not able to progress. If a certain group of people want such a life then it is their choice but as responsible adults, they should not play around with the future of coming generations. The modern world is all about Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. English is now an International language and it gives an immense power to be able to communicate with just about anyone in the entire world, most modern Scientific/Technological research and development is also in English and having documents in English makes things much easier.  Therefore, we must not demote this extremely useful and valuable language (which is also a legacy and part of our history) in any way.  

As constructive suggestions to this issue, it would be best to increase the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) and critical thinking elements in the SNC while maintaining only the basic religious or political content. In fact it would be even better to let the children’s parents decide what they want to teach them at home regarding religion and politics rather than the schools/colleges. The draft curricula for Social Studies and General Science for grades 4-5 can be termed excellent and very modern. However, I was not able to find any mention of evolution by natural selection, which is the basis of modern Biology; this must be included. The draft curriculum for any ICT (Information and Communication Technology) related subject was not available for review but let’s hope it would also be as good as the one for General Science. Subjects like Design and Technology, Music and Arts should also be considered for incorporation into the curriculum. 

Hopefully, better sense would prevail and the concerns mentioned by learned academics like Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy and Dr. A.H. Nayyar are addressed, they must be taken on board. Otherwise, in 2060, people in this country might be recalling 2020 as a very progressive and liberal time just like we are nostalgic for the times during 1960s.

A contributed article by Shahbaz A. Khan.
The writer is an Electronic Engineer and Socio-Political Analyst.