President Alvi wants no disparity in education system

Islamabad: President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday called for the removal of disparity among different streams of education in the country by ensuring implementation of single national curriculum (SNC).

"The focus of our education system should be on character building and promoting critical and creative thinking among students," he said during a briefing given by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training at Aiwan-e-Sadr, here.

The meeting was attended by Minister for FE&PT, Shafqat Mehmood, Minister for Science & Technology, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Minister for Human Rights, Dr. Shireen M Mazari, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Muhammad Khan, Parliamentary Secretary, FE&PT, Wajeeha Akram, and Secretary FE&PT, Farah Hamid Khan.

Highlighting the importance of education, the president said that it was essential to provide quality and research-based education which could play significant role in the socio-economic development of the country.

The ministry officials briefed the meeting about the development of SNC and informed that SNC was designed, in consultation with all federating units of the country and other relevant stakeholders, including private sectors and religious schools (Deeni Madaris).

They highlighted that SNC had been developed in accordance with the International standards to meet the educational requirements of the country. The meeting was apprised that the SNC was designed in three phases which would be implemented in all streams of education.

Initially, the new scheme of education would be introduced for the students from grades 1-5 during Academic Year 2021-22. Similarly, the process of development of SNC for phase-2 (6-8) and phase-3 (9-12) had already been started.

The meeting was informed that the development of SNC was driven by the key considerations like teachings of Quran & Sunnah, constitutional framework, national policies, aspirations and national standards, alignments with SDGs for goals and targets, vision of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Muhammad Iqbal and focus on our values. The president appreciated the efforts of ministry for designing a comprehensive single national curriculum.