SNC stymied by lack of English teachers

Thousands of educators flunked language course

LAHORE:

Punjab government is having problems in implementing the Single National Curriculum in the province’s public sector schools as thousands of government schoolteachers lack the English language skills, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Thousands of teachers hailing from the nine districts of the province underwent a basic training course to help them equip with the skills to teach basic subjects to their pupils in the English language, but they flunked the course. The nine districts are DG Khan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalnagar, Layyah, Gujranwala, Narowal, Sargodha and Sialkot.

The curriculum was to be introduced in three phases: in the first phase, it was implemented for Grades 1-5 in the academic year 2021-22; in the second, it is to be implemented for Grades 6-8 in 2022-23; and in its third phase, Grades 9-12 in 2023-24.

“The biggest issue as far as implementing the Single National Curriculum is concerned is that English is the medium of instruction, but we do not have teachers at the government schools who know English,” said an official of the Punjab School Education Department.

The official said that a basic online course for language skills had been introduced to help the teachers learn the English language, but the teachers performed so poorly that the purpose of introducing the course could not be fulfilled.

“The fact is that this Single National Curriculum was imposed without planning,” said an office-bearer of the Punjab Teachers Union.

A news item published on these pages in February 2022 had reported that the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) and the Working Group for Inclusive Education (WGIE) had [then] raised their concerns after reviewing the final core curriculum issued for Classes VI to VIII under the Single National Curriculum (SNC).

The policy and education experts and civil society members had also expressed their concern about the content of the SNC at a seminar.

An academic and researcher, Dr A H Nayyar, had told the seminar that introducing theological studies at higher levels “would most likely add religious frictions on educational campuses”.

Dr. Nayyar had alleged that “those who have introduced these new trends in education have, at best, been short-sighted and shallow in thought. They know not what harm they have done”.

The experts had noted that the curriculum designing had totally disregarded the repeated pleas of avoiding the loading of the curriculum with religious content. This was likely to translate into “a narrow worldview of students” besides impacting teachers and the overall education system in Pakistan.

While highlighting gaps in the curriculum and “violations of the Constitution”, the CSJ Director, Peter Jacob, had said that the Punjab government had been “turning schools into seminaries”, reducing the scope of education in science, mathematics and social sciences.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2023.