Academic questions federal govt’s wish to enforce single curriculum across country

The federal government has no right to enforce the Single National Curriculum in provinces after the 18th amendment any such move will further marginalise religious minorities and may aggravate sectarian conflicts.

These views were expressed by members of civil society, academics and rights activists during a session titled ‘Legitimacy of the Single National Curriculum- Post 18th Amendment’ organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Friday.

Prof Dr Riaz Ahmed Shaikh, the social sciences dean of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, presented a detailed lecture on the Single National Curriculum and its legitimacy while HRCP Vice Chairperson Qazi Khizar moderated the session.

Shedding light on the course outline prepared under the Single National Curriculum and relevant constitutional provisions, Dr Shaikh tried to explain why the federal government wanted education to regress in Islamabad.

History

“The Government of India Act 1935 had provided three legislative lists namely the federal, concurrent, and provincial legislative lists. Education was placed in the exclusive legislative and executive domain of the provinces vide Entry 17 of the provincial legislative list. Any matter related to Education as policy, planning or curriculum was neither on the federal legislative list nor on the concurrent legislative list,” said Dr Shaikh.

He added that in the 1956 constitution, education, including university education, technical education and professional training, was assigned to the exclusive legislative domain of the provinces and the same was retained in the constitution of 1962.

“The interim constitution of 1972, continued with the previous tradition of division of subjects,” the academic explained, adding that education, including higher education, was made part of the provincial mandate.

He said education saw a major jurisdiction shift in 1973 when it was formally incorporated in the concurrent and federal legislative lists in the 1973 constitution. He informed the meeting that under the original 1973 constitution, three entries dealt with education in the federal legislative list; whereas, the concurrent list included important entries like education policy, planning, curriculum, syllabus, standards of education and Islamic education, empowering the federal government to play a dominant role in the affairs of education.

Pre-18th amendment

Discussing the pre-18th amendment framework, Dr Shaikh said education in the concurrent legislative list had remained a joint function of the federal as well as provincial governments.

The formulation, evaluation and approval of curriculum remained the mandate of the Federal Bureau of Curriculum, which was a constituent section of the federal education ministry established under the Federal Supervision of Curricula, Textbooks and Standards Act 1976.

The academic said the Federal Bureau of Curriculum was supported by the curriculum bureaus of every province, which provided academic support to the federal bureau. The authority of the finalisation of the curriculum lay with the federal ministry.

Dr Shaikh remarked that the role of the federal government in education was institutionalised after the introduction of the curriculum in the concurrent list and enactment of the Federal Supervision of Curricula, Textbooks and Standards Act 1976. Though the textbook development was a responsibility of the provincial or regional textbook boards, the mandate of final approval remained with the Curriculum Wing under the section 3 of the above-mentioned law. Meanwhile, the National Textbook Review Committee, a constituent committee of the Federal Bureau of Curriculum, was mandated with evaluation and approval of the textbooks.

In order to ensure quality and uniformity across the country, the Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) was formed in 1976 under a notification issued by the ministry of education in 1976. Another important institution functional under the auspices of the federal education ministry was the Interprovincial Education Ministerial Committee.

After 18th amendment

In the 18th constitutional amendment, Dr Shaikh said, the existing framework of distribution of powers between the federal government and the provinces was revised. “Education has been shifted to the legislative and executive jurisdiction of the provinces. Now, education is a complete provincial subject. Provinces can form textbook boards, develop curricula and a completely independent system of education,” he said.

He added that after the 18th amendment, the Sindh government passed various Acts pertaining to education and formed several bodies under those laws. Such laws included the Sindh Teachers Education Development Authority Act 2012, Right to Free and Compulsory Act 2013, Sindh School Education Standards and Curriculum Act 2014 and many others.

The speaker explained that it was not only Sindh that legislated for education but other provinces also made laws as per their requirements.

Why not other issues

Dr Shaikh highlighted that before the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 22.8 million children were out of school across Pakistan. He asked why no action plan on a federal level had been made to bring back those children to school.

Now, the number of out-of-school children has increased because millions of children have dropped out during the Covid-19 crisis, he added. At present, the federal government was only focused on the implementation of single national curriculum, the academic said as he asked whether one curriculum could bring those millions of out-of-school children back to schools.

Likewise, he stated, of the 47.5 million school-going children, 42 per cent attended private schools that were not ready to adopt the single curriculum, especially the prominent school chains. He also asked if the federal government intended to ensure that 35,000 madrasas in the country, including 5,000 registered seminaries where millions of children were currently enrolled, would follow the single curriculum.

He remarked that if Islamisation of the curriculum was the need of the hour, why students of those religious seminaries who studied purely religious subjects were unable to get better job opportunities in the global market.