Editorial – What is wrong with the Single National Curriculum?

2022-12-21T14:06:06+00:00

The Single National Curriculum claims to be a uniform syllabus being taught across Pakistan in a strive of the PTI government to eliminate disparity and provide equal opportunities for children. This policy is being framed to develop till 2023 following the details; grades one to five till March 2021, six to eight till March 2022, and matric to intermediate in March 2023. Punjab has accepted this policy except for a few institutes in the province including Aitchison college. Other provinces are reluctant to adopt this policy, notably the Sindh government, which has argued that “federation allows provinces in education choices so, we will see whether to adopt it or not”. The Single National Curriculum (SNC) is an abrupt policy transition of the PTI government to bring equality in the education system while ignoring the aftereffects to the students learning in different educational structures. The current educational structure does not necessarily fit in with the SNC pedagogy and language of the provinces. With an ideological thrust of uniformity on SNC, flexibility to sustain contemporary standards of educational institutes is minimized. Moreover, it would not allow those, who can afford, to pursue better options. Furthermore, the younger generation would be alienated from the regional languages and their cultural significance because SNC can’t advertise the cultural context and languages of all provinces. SNC also has a stereotypical approach towards women based on their representation. In the science subjects the references of Islamic teachings could adversely effect the views of the non-muslim students. The existing gap between the two syllabuses SNC and previous needs to be filled first, before implementing such a wide-ranging policy.