The Single National Curriculum schism

KARACHI:

Education in Pakistan is a divisive topic, quite literally. With a bunch of parallel streams on offer to various segments of society, in theory at least, leaders and parents ought to have been able to pick the best approach(es). In action, however, these streams have long divided education along economic lines and perpetuated a situation some have described as education apartheid.

Enter the Single National Curriculum, which was supposed to fix that very thing. Under the slogan Eik Qaum, Eik Nisaab (One Nation, One Curriculum), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government hoped to end the reinforcement of class divisions through standardised education. But noble as this sentiment was, the unified curriculum it finally devised has become a divisive issue on its own.

The question of implementing it, on the one hand, has reignited the age-old debate of what should be a provincial subject and what should be a federal one. But the debate does not end there. As photographs of the newly published SNC textbooks circulated online, so did concerns raised by seasoned educationists.

Far from smooth sailing

So far, the government’s efforts to roll out SNC have not progressed as smoothly as it hoped. While the provinces under the ruling PTI’s sway have, as expected, announced they will be implementing it for grades 1 to 5 this academic session, Sindh has taken a firm stance against it. Meanwhile in Lahore, elite private schools including the Aitchison College, have started their new session without the SNC, even though the government ordered the private education sector to follow suite.

“What we already have and what the theme of the SNC is will surely bring everyone on the same page but the transfer from one curriculum to the other is not as smooth as the government thought it would be,” said Chairman All Private Schools Management Association Sindh Syed Tariq Shah.

The new curriculum was a surprise for most of the associations under which the schools and the education system operate. “To integrate the private stakeholders in this upgraded version, all stakeholders should have been taken into confidence but nothing as such was done which is why the current status of the curriculum needs to be revisited and might need amendments too,” said Shah, who is also the General Secretary of Pakistan Alliance of Private Schools Association.

He added that private book publishers have also been asked to formulate books on the given theme of the SNC. “The curriculum board has asked the publishers to make their books with the defined model books keeping in mind the theme, chapters, methodology and basic topics,” Shah explained.

Between content and Constitution

The subject of the SNC has also attracted some controversy recently after the Government of Sindh under its authority after the 18th amendment in the constitution rejected the idea of accepting SNC in the province. Minister for Education and Literacy Sindh Syed Sardar Ali Shah announced in the assembly that education is a provincial subject and matter according to the constitution and the federal cannot force them to accept the curriculum they have formulated. The federal government in the meantime have ordered the implementation but so far only KP and Punjab have accepted the course mainly due the fact that both provinces are under Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.

Keeping in view how education is a provincial matter, curriculum and course is also provincial subject and the federal government cannot impose it on provincial education systems. “The curriculum is being imposed without taking the provinces and stakeholders into consideration while two years back we shared our concerns that it cannot happen this way,” said Syed Sardar Ali Shah to The Express Tribune. “The curriculum cannot be imposed on anyone. This looks more like a martial law curriculum than actual reform.”

He said that while the province could accept the changes proposed for Science and Mathematics in the SNC, it could not accept its recommendations on what should be compulsory or not. “Each province has its own culture and languages, so the SNC cannot be accepted without amendment,” he said. “Not only do the SNC books seem to be more heavily loaded compared to the ones in use at present, the former have a high amount of religious content as well. In subjects like Science, which are based on experimentation and reasoning, not particular beliefs, this cannot be accepted.”

Coming back to linguistic issues, Shah added that it was also impractical to change the medium of instruction mid-stream for students. “If a child has studied certain subjects in English till class 4, he or she cannot be forced to study them in Urdu from class 5. This could derail the entire education process for them,” the minister noted. “A curriculum should be a guideline that can be changed accordingly, but the SNC is an entire concept being forcibly implemented. This is very impractical,” he pointed out.

“The idea as a whole was good if we don’t consider the acceptance and sustainability of it but the way it unfolded is disturbing for the whole education system,” shared Nadeem Hussain, who is an education economist. According to him, the country needed training and mandate first before the whole system could be introduced. While a committee was formed to handle this, it was not sufficient enough for the whole country. “Educationists were looking forward to the curriculum which could empower and upgrade the existing and level up the education system which we already had but just to bring a good balance between madaris and schools, the modern education has suffered a disadvantage,” he pointed out.

The students in each education system come from different backgrounds and judging them through one system would not be fair for most of them and similarly the rigorous exercise, which the country is going through right now with putting all categories of schools, maktabs, and madaris under one system is making it difficult for existing systems as well. “All the seminaries are also finding it difficult to accept and many concerns were shared through Wafaq ul madaris Al-Arabia, Pakistan, while Oxford University Press has also started working on the textbooks but even they need the approval of those books which is a thorough process in itself,” said Hussain, explaining how just ordering something from a federal level is not the only solution but the ground reality if different from that.

Positive change, in theory

SNC, as a concept, is not a bad notion as it can bring uniformity and equality among students as if children from rural areas, seminaries, private schools and government schools are learning from the same syllabus then when they step into higher education they have an equal level of knowledge. “This can actually provide a level playing field to everyone and opportunities but only when the outcomes are dependent on the same guidelines,” said Hussain, adding that the 25,000 children who are registered through seminaries cannot apply for government jobs and not even for private as their education level is different from the students studying in private schools. “If this is implemented considering other factors as well it will lessen the inter-provincial disparity as well since most of the students when transferred from once province to the other provinces find it difficult to adjust due to a difference in curriculum. Moreover, it will also help in the socio-economic differences among the young generation,” he added.

Unlike other provinces, Punjab is the first one to accept SNC wholeheartedly and their schools are shifting to the new course from the new academic year but the silence of Sindh on the matter has been exceptional from the beginning. “After the amendment from schools, colleges, universities and boards - every other thing is in total jurisdiction of the province which is why Sindh is adamant too and Balochistan has also not been vocal on the matter yet,” he said.

Religious leanings

Keeping in view what the constitution allows and propagates in the country, no one can be pushed to receive religious education while the elective subjects should be taking care of religious content. Article 22 (1) of the Constitution of Pakistan states that “No person attending any educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction, or take part in any religious ceremony or attend religious worship, if such instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other than his own.” However, previously the curriculum which was being taught in the country and even with the new syllabus the books have incorporated Qur’anic verses and Islamic content in Science subjects as well.

“The books such as Biology or Physics shouldn’t be dealt with in the way the curriculum board is doing. They should only be approved or amended by subject experts. The involvement of Islamic scholars should be taken into consideration in subjects such as Islamiat,” said Tariq Shah. He also pointed out that while Pakistan is an Islamic Republic, it is also a free state where no one can be forced to study Islamic teachings. “As such, books of non-religious subjects should only be modified in consultation with subject experts. The followers of other religions should not be influenced. Not forcefully at least,” he said.

While there has been much research and speculation as to how much religious content should be taught in school, the law, at present, specifies no exact percentage. Speaking on the issue, Hussain said the problem arises when religious content is mixed into compulsory subjects. “Subjects like Urdu, English and Social Studies are compulsory for minorities as well, and are taught even at university level. There are no electives for them, and still, even at present, a large amount of religious content is part of the teaching of such subjects in Pakistan,” said Hussain.

The new SNC course books have been approved by a committee working under the national curriculum council with a Islamic scholar as a mandatory member to point out what is religiously or culturally ‘unacceptable’ in the curriculum. “All diagrams and pictures have been amended in the course books, but the most prominent change in the compulsory books can be seen in the ratio of progressive writers, which is less than it was before. Especially when it comes to Urdu literature, the work of progressive writers has not been included much,” he added.

According to a publisher, those who raised concerns over the excessive use of religious content in the curriculum were targeted with a malicious campaign. “When we started pointing this out, campaigns were launched against us and we were called blasphemers even though the books we publish have to be approved by various regulatory authorities before they can be taught in schools,” he said on condition of anonymity. He added that many private schools in Punjab were being forced to accept the change even though many parents opposed the idea of teaching certain subjects in Urdu. “We are also helpless and have to submit our books for approval,” he said. Even with the approval, books take about six to eight weeks to print and reach the market, leaving schools and children just as confused about the changes, he added.

Unequal standards of teaching

Where many have raised concerns with the SNC, some at least hope that the uniform system could act as an equaliser for children from various economic segments. However, experts have pointed out that even with the same teaching material, the standard of teaching across different schools and school systems would perpetuate the state of education apartheid in the country.

At present, the private schools in the country are divides into three types of markets namely A, B, and C, and syllabus books are designed accordingly to cater to their student and teaching styles. The government has taken a positive step towards this issue and has been training teachers after the new curriculum has been introduced. Currently, the government is training 300 teachers who will become master trainers and train other teachers but all those teachers are coming from government institutions who cannot take on the private system.

According to the new curriculum set, it is advised that other than English, Mathematics and Science, all subjects should be taught in the national language, like it is in countries like China and Japan. But that would require a more thorough curriculum development, experts said.

“Curriculum change is not something new and the country’s education system has been through this before. The problem is the implementation, which needs to be handled separately. Pakistan had its SNC in 2006 which was fully implemented and accepted by all the provinces in 2014 while Punjab was the first one even then to accept it,” said educationist and Chief Executive Officer at Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi Baela Raza Jamil. “For the curriculum to work well, the education system needs reviewing every four to five years. Unfortunately, that is not the case in Pakistan where we are getting a new curriculum after 14 years,” she added.

Providing new books and themes is not the solution but maintaining the system is. The curriculum and books need reviewing and changes to keep it up to date and committees should be made to make it happen. “Just like how higher education revises each subject after every four years, schools and college books also need that and reviewing the books should be done much earlier than waiting for 14 years to change them,” Jamil pointed out. She added that the national curriculum that was introduced in 2006 is still being implemented in almost 96 per cent of the educational sector with only 4 per cent exception. Around 2.5 per cent of this exception is made up by the madaris and 1.5 per cent by the elite schools, which follow IB and CIE.

Given the Student Learning Objectives (SLO) in the country, almost all education systems are following the same curriculum because students had to appear in grade 5 and 8 board exams until a few years ago and students still have to appear in grade 9 to 12 board exams. The course is same for everyone. “The students who are not following this system are the ones who are appearing for O and A levels meanwhile 90 per cent of local students are studying the same curriculum with few changes in books that will remain same. The SNC is not forcing for one books system but each publisher can print their books according to the model book and theme,” she explained. The few topics that have changed include a greater emphasis on climate change and language/words, which are more common in the current scenario.

In the year 2016-2017, the cabinet approved the Quran act, according to which schools must have Quran class and children have to complete a recitation of the Quran during their time in school time. This is why the new curriculum has incorporated Islamiat at a very younger class. “This has made the subject quite heavy but it was due the act that passed. But yes, article 22 aspects can’t be ignored and when a specific subject has been introduced in the course already, there is no need to incorporate religious aspects in other subjects such as science and mathematics,” the educationist mentioned.

The main problem with the curriculum is not that is not in the push to implement it, but in the shifting and confusing statements. For instance, it was initially announced that the SNC will have a uniform set of books taught across the country but now, publishers have been allowed to publish different books for different schools with clearance from the relevant committee.

“Any new curriculum or any change will take time to settle in and this will take six to seven months to adjust the heaviest curriculum, which is of classes 4 and 5,” Jamil said. “These classes are burdened with five subjects and most government-run schools have just one to three teachers. How will they manage it? In Sindh, around 71 percent of the schools are one to three teacher schools. In such situations, it will increase the inequity rather than be an equaliser in the matter,” she added.

 

Parental feedback

The feedback from the parents was mixed where many supported the idea but were concerned about subjects being forced to be taught in Urdu. “It’s good to have a single national curriculum but I think it's not necessary to teach it in the Urdu language,” shared a parent. “Single curriculum is an excellent idea but basic subjects like science and history should be in English because science in Urdu might cause understanding issues,” said another.

The government of Sindh has been working out how they will handle the situation and since the 18th amendment has taken place and the curriculum act has been made they are working on the syllabus and slowly trying to amend the curriculum to a better version. “We have been working for a very long time now and reviewing things to integrate them well in life skills, the province has already adapted Science and Mathematics from the national curriculum and we are still open to more things,” said the Chief Advisor School Education and Literacy Department Sindh Dr Fozia.

With the change and model books which the federal government has introduced, Sindh Government has shown friction over accepting it as it is as education is a provincial subject. “We will make our model books as SNC has also allowed others to print theirs and also in Sindh 65 per cent of the books are published in Sindhi as the medium helps children because of their mother tongue,” she said.