SNC carries no drastic changes than 2006 curriculum

PESHAWAR: The much-trumpeted Single National Curriculum (SNC), which the federal government has announced to implement from August next, carries no big changes than the curriculum developed in 2006.

Some changes have, however, been introduced in some subjects, which the provincial governments have the choice to follow or not.

The new curriculum would be implemented in three phases till 2023. Only Punjab has decided to fully implement it, while the remaining provinces would develop some of the courses in accordance with their local circumstances and environment and implement them.

Developing and updating curriculum was the duty of the federal government in consultation with the provinces until the devolution of education to the provinces in 2011.

After the devolution of the subject to the provinces, the federal government lost its say in developing curriculum, approving books, deciding the medium of instructions and taking other such decisions. Even now it is the provinces, which have to decide curriculum for different classes.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial cabinet has already approved and notified a curriculum for all the schools.

“It is almost the same as devised by the federal government with some changes in the subjects of social studies and general knowledge in which chapters about local events, environment and personalities have been incorporated,” said a senior officer of the directorate of curriculum and teachers education, while talking to The News.

The very aim of the single national curriculum is to design the same curriculum for the public sector, private schools and religious seminaries. But the spirit of the new curriculum is the same as the one developed in 2006, the official said.

He said that in the new curriculum, a little more attention has been focused on languages, writing skills, grammar. Emerging trends, human rights issues, gender disparities and other such topics have been recommended for the new curriculum, he said.

The general public and even people working in the education sector have been confusing the curriculum with syllabus and books. They think that by the single curriculum, the same books would be recommended for all the institutions, which is not correct.

Curriculum basically gives a broader roadmap, objectives, teaching methodology, evaluation pattern and others. While the syllabus is developed in view of the curriculum like which chapters should be included in which book and a yearly teaching calendar is designed.

Similarly, the same book for all the educational institutions across the country is not possible at all. An effort had been made at the federal level to introduce a single book for each subject, but the textbook boards in the provinces did not accept the idea as it was not having familiarity with the local environment, customs and traditions.

The directorate of curriculum and teachers education is still the competent authority to accept or reject a curriculum, syllabus and books. However, none of the provinces opposed the federal government’s bid to design the single national curriculum as all of them had been made part of the consultation process. The consultation had been made with all federating units, public sector, private sector, Federal Government Educational Institutions, Deeni Madaris and others.

The very aim of the new curriculum is to develop one system of education for all, in terms of curriculum, medium of instruction and a common platform of assessment. The new system, if adopted in letter and spirit, would ensure that all the children have a fair and equal opportunity to receive a quality education.

The curriculum may have major changes or not at least it would ensure that the same system is being followed in the public and the private sector. The monopoly of private schools and the publishers would come to an end. Books would be designed and published for all the schools – private and public – in accordance with the curriculum.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the private schools have already started teaching the books published by the textbook board. The problem being faced by the private schools is the non-availability of books as the textbook board lacked the capacity to publish books in such a huge quantity.