Govt working on single national curriculum, Senate told

Minister says courses for primary schools will be implemented from March next year

ISLAMABAD:

The National Curriculum Council (NCC) has started coordination for the development of a 'Single National Curriculum' (SNC) in the country with active participation of all provinces and other relevant stakeholders, the Senate was informed on Thursday.

Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said on Thursday that comparative studies were conducted to align the SNC with international standards, including comparison of the Pakistani curriculum with Singapore and Cambridge Curricula.

He told the Senate during the question hour that hectic consultations had been held with the provinces on the matter. “It is our desire to implement the single national curriculum in phases from April next year,” Shafqat Mahmood added.

The minister said that consultative process was carried out with engagement of stakeholders from all the provinces and areas, including public and private sector institutions and the federal government educational institutions (FGEIs).

“In the phase-1, the first draft of the SNC for Grade Pre-I to Class V was developed and shared with all the provinces/areas and the Cambridge University for their input and feedback,” he said. “Provincial and area workshops were subsequently held in all federating units from November 2019 to January 2020.”

He added that the services of Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) were hired to ensure value-addition of the SNC and development of teacher training modules and assessment framework.

"Input and feedback received from all federating units, FGEIs, AKU-IED and Cambridge University were then collated and consolidated in the second draft of the SNC. This formed the basis for discussions and consensus building during the National Conference on SNC in February 11-14, 2020" he said.

The minister said that first phase curriculum for grades Pre-1 to V was presented to the prime minister on March 19, who expressed satisfaction over the completion of the first phase within the given timeframe.

The minister added that after completion of textbooks on the basis of the SNC phase-1 for grades Pre-1 to V, uniform curriculum at primary level will be implemented throughout the country from March 2021. Similar to the first phase, the SNC for Grade VI to VIII will be developed and implemented throughout Pakistan by March 2022 and for 9 to 12 by March 2023.

Parliamentary Affairs State Minister Ali Muhammad Khan informed the house that eradication of polio in Pakistan had been declared as a national public health emergency. He added the government had started different polio campaigns to eradicate the polio disease.

Communication Minister Murad Saeed told the house that the ground breaking of Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway will be performed next year. He said the reconstruction of Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway M-9 was being done as per international standards.

Responding to a calling attention notice regarding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority Ordinance, 2019, Information Minister Shibli Faraz said that CPEC was not the project of any political party, rather “it is the project of the people of Pakistan and China”.

He said that all the projects of CPEC were successfully advancing towards completion. “With the CPEC Authority, he said, “the government is creating a mechanism through which all the CPEC-related projects can be completed in a coherent manner”.

The Minister said that there were many enemies of the CPEC project and “we should not play in the hands of others”. Earlier, at the outset, the house offered Fateha for those martyred in Peshawar Madrassa blast.