Things started looking up when Imran Khan silhouetted on the political horizon. A smart guy with smart brains, striding into the swamp of ill-reputed politics and politicians. We all foul mouth them, the conventional politicians, but nobody dares to enter the dirty field of politics and be a befitting alternate.
So as expected, Imran Khan came up with the revolutionary idea of a Single National Curriculum in 2020. Awesome ! It was something that has been long over due; to create harmony, unity and a common knowledge base amongst the students of government schools, private schools and religious seminaries. All school students need to be religious and all madaris students need to be knowledgeable.
The Single National Curriculum would be a ‘guideline’ of course and so it was said by many authorities and analysts and sources. Obviously, the government cannot specify particular books to be taught for any subject. For example, it would be very sensible if the SNC says that all preschool children should be taught the Quran Qaidah. Now it would be up to the school to decide that which Quran Qaidah to teach … should it be the Noorani Qaidah or Qurani Qaidah or any other Qaidah … or even be presentation based teaching or Montessori material based teaching !
But it came as a shock to many of us when at the implementation of the SNC in 2021, we were told that specific books are compulsory to be taught under the SNC curriculum. So much so that schools would be inspected and any school found not teaching the specific books of the SNC would be penalized. So I jumped into my car, drove to the nearest bookstore and asked for a set of the SNC books. I opened the pages with skeptical fingers … and slumped the book shut.
The SNC books are a good effort to improve the quality of the government schools, but unfortunately, the gap between the standard of the government schools and private schools is so huge that a slight improvement in the content and quality of the government school books is still a far cry from the content and quality of the private schools books.
Now the interesting thing is that the government officials are saying that the schools have to teach certain SNC books compulsory and following, have the liberty to teach whatever else stuff they want. With due apology, this approach is very impractical and not sensible at all. The private schools are completely and fully loaded with their own curriculum books. There is absolutely no further space to stuff in other books. But a holier question arises … if the purpose of the SNC is developing a nation on one page, why would the government allow whatever else to be taught. Suppose some school obediently teaches the SNC books and along with teaches books on atheism and homosexuality ?
Next comes the language issue. The much applauded Finland educational techniques say that if we question a student on how to make a box, he should have the choice to write it out on a page (Eastern parent’s favorite learning technique!) or verbally tell the procedure (like the much dreaded Viva in the East!) or simply craft out the box practically and show it as a proof of his knowledge (surely would be children’s favorite!). Same should be the case with the language of study. A student should have the choice to study Sciences in English, Urdu, Arabic, etc., whatever language he is able to comprehend. Forcing the Urdu-medium students to study the Sciences in English and forcing the English-medium students to study the Sciences in Urdu is an undue injustice to the students of Pakistan. Only the English language can be forced to be taught in English and only the Urdu language can be forced to be taught in Urdu and only the Arabic language can be forced to be taught in Arabic …
Speaking of Arabic, if ever any strategy needs to be developed to singularize the language of the education system of Pakistan, along with its official language, the target language should then be well … may I say it ? Arabic. Yes ! Shocking as it may seem, it is the most logical choice to singularize upon. Why ? Notice the caption on the SNC books – One Nation, One Curriculum. Charming ! But it is important to note that Allah SWT uses the word nation in the Holy Quran forty times, and each time, Allah is not addressing the Pakistanis or Afghanis or Saudis or any other Muslim locality but the Muslims in totality. In the eyes of Allah Almighty SWT, the nation is that of the Muslims, not a geographical group but an ideological group.
Unlike some, we have absolutely no problem with the Islamic content, depictions, graphics, and so on in the SNC and neither do we feel that any kind of gender discrimination is on the way. With Imran Khan at the head, it is not possible.
We understand that PM Imran Khan is trying to create a merger of the triple education systems running side-by-side in Pakistan, but for that, the quality of the private schools must not be brought down. And what are the private schools doing right now to hang on to dear quality ? They have stuffed the SNC books into their curriculum along with their own original curriculum books. How do you think the student’s brains are right now ? Just like over stuffed school bags !
It was the academic guidelines and defining lines of the curriculum that were important to develop the SNC, not the books themselves. The colors and flavors of the resultant books may vary like a bunch of flowers, breezing in the wind. We need to undo the compulsion of government specific books, else the education of Pakistan would be as good as the nationalization of industries in the 1970s, or as bad ?
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