Shafqat Mehmood clears up some confusion about the Single National Curriculum

Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood has issued a statement to clear some confusion persisting around the Single National Curriculum.

The minister explained, in a statement on Wednesday, that the curriculum sets out only the "minimum learning standards" for students and must thus be considered the "core curriculum".

The schools, therefore, are free to teach any additional material or even additional subjects, according to Mehmood.

Also, private schools are allowed the use of any book "that is consistent with SNC", said the minister.

The Single National Curriculum will be implemented across the country from August 2021, according to a statement from the education ministry.

The ministry had said that under the directives of Federal the Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood, the new year "would start now in August 2021 due to extension in examination dates to be held in May/June and also prolonged school closures in the academic year of 2020".

When prodded to explain on a television show how education standards courtesy the new syllabus will improve, Mehmood said that teachers' training will improve and distance learning will be improved.

"The kids studying in madressahs and those studying in elite schools will have the same educational standards," he said. "And those standards will be higher, not lower."

"We have prepared [the curriculum] keeping in mind modern standards [of education]," said Mehmood.

He lamented how a "certain class" in the country thought that only Cambridge and Oxford knew what educational standards were and how they can be perfected.

"This is only the thinking of a particular class here," said the minister. "The standards [education in Pakistan] will rise," he added.