CM Murad Ali Shah asks Centre if Sindh has to adopt entire national curriculum

Sindh’s chief minister said on Thursday that the Ministry of Federal Education & Professional Training should provide the necessary clarification whether the provinces are required to adopt the entire national curriculum or only the core subjects of the syllabus.

“The Sindh government may adopt a single national curriculum containing only the core subjects with the minimum standards and further enrich it followed by the development of the provincial curriculum of the remaining subjects such as languages, social studies, etc.,” said Syed Murad Ali Shah.

During a meeting at the CM House that was held to discuss the Single National Curriculum Plan of the federal government, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani said that a meeting had been held on the single national curriculum in September 2019 by the National Curriculum Council and chaired by his federal counterpart.

Ghani said that to implement the single national curriculum, it was decided that the syllabus developed by the federal education ministry should be taken into consideration by the provinces through review workshops at provincial level.

The Sindh education minister informed the provincial chief executive that after the provinces accord their approval to the single national curriculum, the syllabus would be implemented

nationally.

CM Shah said that after the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment, the education portfolio was delegated as a provincial subject, and since then the Sindh government had worked on curriculum as part of its provincial mandate, adopted the national curriculum of 2006 and revised it in line with international standards.

Ghani said that in 2015 the Sindh government had enacted a landmark piece of legislation — The Sindh School Education Standards & Curriculum Act — which was passed by the provincial assembly.

He added that under the law the Sindh Curriculum Council was established, and the Bureau of Curriculum was reconstituted as the Directorate of Curriculum Assessment & Research.

The education minister said that the approach and strategies employed by the Sindh Education Department for review, design, and development of standards, curriculum, textbooks and resources were underpinned by the strict quality principles that were the cornerstone of its policy.

The post-18th amendment accomplishments in the field of curriculum and textbooks by the education department includes reviewing the national curriculum, and developing an assessment policy and procedures for examination, he added.

The CM pointed out that in accordance with the 18th constitutional amendment, the provinces could decide their respective curricula because education was a provincial subject.

Ghani said that this March he had held the Sindh Curriculum Council’s ninth meeting, during which they had discussed in detail how to implement the single national curriculum.

The meeting at the CM House observed that after the 18th constitutional amendment, the development of curricula and syllabuses has become the responsibility of the provinces.

So, they agreed, it becomes necessary to seek clarification from the Centre on the adoption of the single national curriculum in the backdrop of the 18th amendment to avoid any compromise on provincial autonomy.

The chief executive said that the federal education ministry should be asked to provide the necessary clarification whether the provinces were to adopt the entire national curriculum or only the core subjects.

CM Shah directed the education department to study and compare the federal government’s curriculum with the Sindh government’s syllabus, which he said has been designed under the guidelines of ‘21st Century Learning Skills’, following which he should be sent the recommendations.

“We can adopt the portion that might be missing from our newly designed curriculum, but adoption or introduction of a new curriculum would only be notified by the provincial government,” he concluded.

The meeting was also attended by the CM’s law adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab, the CM’s Principal Secretary Sajid Jamal Abro, the school education secretary, the college education secretary, the law secretary, and other relevant officers and experts.