WHAT IS SNC?
In 2018, on the suggestion of Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood, Prime Minister Imran Khan created a National Curriculum Council for the preparation of the single nation curriculum.
Last month, the SNC was finally launched in all provinces but Sindh from classes 1-5, with claims that it would end disparity within the educational system of the country as all private and public schools along with madrassahs would be teaching the same curriculum. The second phase of the SNC will start in March 2022 for classes 6-8 and the following year for classes 9-12.
The compulsory subjects for grades 1 to 5 are Urdu, English, Islamiyat, General Knowledge and Mathematics whereas from grade 1 to 12 the subject of Islamiyat is replaced with ‘Religious Education’ for minorities. There is basic education for all religions and English will be taught as a language rather than a subject.
“We (the government of Sindh) will decide about the matter of SNC. We will review SNC and we will implement it if it is better than the current curriculum. But it should be remembered that it will be the decision of the provincial government. The Constitution has provided us this right and we are not going to give it up,” he said.
Speaking to this scribe, PCTB spokesman Rana Tariq Mahmood said that under the new curriculum, subjects of English, General Science, Mathematics, Social Sciences and General Knowledge would be compulsory whereas non-Muslim students will be able to read Religious Studies instead of Islamic Studies.
“Under the same curriculum, 30 model books from Prep to class 5 onwards will be read. Under the SNC, 18 subjects will be taught in Urdu and 12 in English. Mathematics will be taught in English in all educational institutions till the fifth standard. Similarly, all books on Urdu, Pakistan Studies, Islamic Studies, and General Science, Social Sciences and General Knowledge will be read in Urdu,” Tariq said.
An official of PCTB informed that they only prepare and publish textbooks whereas it was the Programme Monitoring and Implementing Unit which acquire books from PCTB in order to disburse them among public schools.
“For the academic session of 2021-22, approximately 50 million SNC books for grade 1-5 have been acquired from PCTB,” the official informed.
IMMEDIATE ROADBLOCKS, PROBLEM WITH ADOPTION AND IMPLEMENTATION:
Despite extensive planning to implement its flagship education policy, the SNC, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has by and large failed in this endevour as a number of private schools still have not adopted the SNC, while public schools are clueless over how to teach the new syllabus using their current capacity and resources and there is resistance from madrassahs as well.
In this regard, it bears mentioning that the implementation and cross-checking of SNC is the responsibility of the Programme Monitoring and Implementing Unit. Moreover, a letter from the Punjab Education Department has directed all heads of district education authorities and the District Registering Authority commissioners to ensure that all the registered private educational institutions must get approval from Punjab Curriculum and Text Book Board for textbooks, supplementary reading material, and any books they want to adopt.
With regards to ensuring that schools are in full compliance with SNC, Pakistan Today approached the Punjab School Education Department regarding enforcement and surprisingly the secretary not only refused to provide the required information regarding all the procedures and SNC but said that this was the duty of the PCTB. However, an official of PCTB informed this scribe that it would be very difficult to stop the violators as the human resource to monitor this was simply not available to them.
“The government should have taken into account of the available infrastructure before implementing the curriculum. Perhaps the staff of these authorities can do this exercise once and check all the schools, but it will be very difficult to maintain consistency,” he added.
According to the latest available Pakistan Education Statistics report, there are a total of 305,546 educational institutions operating in the country of which 202,106 (66 percent) are functioning in the public sector while 103,440 (34 percent) educational institutions are managed by the private sector. Additionally, there are around 31,115 madrassahs as well.
Schools wanting to teach from a textbook of their preference would have to get an NOC from PCTB before being allowed to do so. According to an official from the PCTB, hundreds of publishers have been approved by the board. For example, the Oxford University Press is approved by Board and the press has also approval to publish books like Mathematics, Economics, Fundamental Physics and many other books. Similarly, many books of Cambridge University Press are also approved by board and various books for English and Mathematics of Cambridge University Press are already approved as well. Not only that, but many other presses and their books have been approved.
“It is a positive initiative but the methods for this approach are questionable. At this point, all stakeholders are questioning what exactly is the government aiming to achieve out of all this. Is the sitting government actually interested in the application of a SNC or [do] they just want to show that they are fulfilling their promise [made in recent election campaigns of 2018]?”
“If a school writes to us that it wants to teach such a book in its school, then we first see if this book does not contradict our SNC, if this is not the case then NOC is easily given to school,” he added.
The official was however unable to provide specific numbers on how many NOC for books had been applied for and how many had been granted. In this regard he claimed that “hundreds of schools had already gotten NOCs”.
Speaking on the matter, Punjab government spokesperson Musarrat Jamshed Cheema explained that the SNC only provides guidelines to all educational institutes. It is up to the institutions to impart education in accordance with the curriculum. The SNC is a curriculum plan and there is no book implementation restriction. Private schools are allowed to publish and teach from their own books. But for this, they will have to acquire NOC from the concerned body but the book should be in accordance with the curriculum set in SNC,” she maintained.
WHY ARE PRIVATE SCHOOLS RELUCTANT TO ADOPT SNC?
Private schools, those with sufficient budgets and resources to perhaps implement the SNC are currently the most reluctant to implement it.
According to sources, private schools — including Aitchison College Lahore, Beaconhouse School System, City Schools System, Lahore Grammar School, Roots, Educators Army Public Schools & Colleges and others — are having difficulty incorporating the SNC into their respective syllabi. For the smaller classes 1-3, the abrupt change in teaching language from English to Urdu for Science and Social Studies (clubbed as one subject to be called ‘General Knowledge’), is proving to be a difficult transition. For the more senior classes, up to grade 5, the books mandated by the SNC are yet to be approved by the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB), even though schools have already opened and classes have commenced.
A source from within the Punjab government informed Pakistan Today that some private schools, who allegedly have access to and support of important government figures, have been asked not to create a hue and cry over the SNC and in return the education ministry is prepared to look the other way if they continue teaching the curriculum of their choice. However, a day ago, the Punjab government issued a stern warning via a letter to Aitchison College not to recommend books for grades 1-5 that had not received NOCs from the PCTB.
Punjab government spokesperson Musarrat also admitted that a great number of students were affiliated with the private school system and there was a strong reaction from private school management over SNC. She alleged that private schools are a profit-motivated mafia that sells expensive education to parents who can’t afford it and that the SNC would provide an alternative.
Taimur K Bandey, an educationist, speaking to this scribe, commented, “It is a positive initiative but the methods for this approach are questionable. At this point, all stakeholders are questioning what exactly is the government aiming to achieve out of all this. Is the sitting government actually interested in the application of a SNC or [do] they just want to show that they are fulfilling their promise [made in recent election campaigns of 2018]?”
While sharing his reservations over the SNC, he said, “We are living in the modern era. This is an era of science. The importance of science has also been emphasised by the sitting government at different forums, yet it has excluded science as a separate subject and integrated science with social studies in the name of general knowledge for grade 1 to grade 3.”
He also stated that the usefulness of using Urdu rather than English as the teaching language for this subject was questionable, adding that the fact that the mode of education would shift from Urdu to English at higher grade levels was potentially harmful.
“Unfortunately, the government is treating private schools like ‘the enemy’ and English as a language of the non-believer. There is nothing wrong in promoting one’s own national language but this should not have priority over what is best for young students’ educational needs,” he added.
“Article 22 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan says that no person should be required to receive religious instruction if that instruction relates to the religion other than his own. There is an option for selection of subjects in the matter of Islamic Studies but what about the rest of the subjects? In almost all subjects there is a part related to Islamic Studies. This is a violation of minorities’ rights laid down in the Constitution,” Banday added.
The new system may be well-integrated but who is going to teach this in the far-flung area? Average Pakistani belongs to a rural area and our system does not support SNC,” Banday concluded.
Former Punjab education minister and current Pakistan Education Council President Imran Masood while speaking to Pakistan Today said: “It is true that prominent private schools are not interested in implementing SNC and the reason for this is the hypocrisy of the government.”
There is general consensus amongst educationists that a severe capacity issue at public schools will hamper the implementation of SNC at this level. Schools understaffed and teachers do not have sufficient training to understand and execute the SNC effectively.
“The motto of one nation, one curriculum is impressive but is it even possible to implement one curriculum?” he asked rhetorically.
“The SNC is not a progressive step but will prove a reversal gear that will take us 20-30 years back. Urdu is our native language but English is the necessity of the hour. There used to be a time when English was a symbol of class. Now, English is a necessity. We are living in a globalized world. All the professional degrees are in English. If the government wants to implement Urdu as a teaching language for some subject then there should be an option for parents to choose the mode of language,” Masood added.
“There is great resistance from the side of parents. The appropriate way is that the government should provide a framework and institutions should decide about the books that fulfil that. At the moment the government is not only providing the framework but also dictating the books. This raises another question: are all 600,000 people associated with the education system trained to teach the new curriculum? It requires time, training, and policy,” he opined.
The owner of an English medium school in Lahore’s DHA speaking to this scribe expressed her grief over the situation and said it was a fact that private schools did not want to teach SNC.
“We have to teach the new SNC to children from classes 1 to 5 but to stick to the same old curriculum for classes 6 to 10. Phase II has not been implemented yet and nothing can be said about whether the PTI government will remain in power in 2023 or not,” she said.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS NOT EQUIPPED TO TEACH SNC:
There is general consensus amongst educationists that a severe capacity issue at public schools will hamper the implementation of SNC at this level. Schools understaffed and teachers do not have sufficient training to understand and execute the SNC effectively.
A headmaster of a government school concurred, admitting that it will take a long time for teachers of government schools to understand the new curriculum.
“Although it is now easier for government teachers to tackle difficult subjects in Urdu, there are still many teachers who will need time to understand the curriculum. We are not talking about Lahore or big cities. If you look at the government schools in the rural areas of Punjab, you will be amazed that the teachers there teach English and Urdu subjects in Punjabi style. Who will explain this curriculum and what will the students learn if the teachers don’t understand it? The fact is that the standard of education in our public schools is so low that the children of the government teachers are enrolled in private schools. Even the children of Punjab Education Minister Dr Murad Raas also attend Beaconhouse School,” he said.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO IMPLEMENT SNC IN RELIGIOUS MADRASSAHS?
Imran Masood, commenting on how religious madrassahs would react to the SNC, expects them to protest because students studying in these madrassahs get certificates from the federation of madrassahs.
But on the other hand, speaking to this scribe, Allama Dr Raghib Hussain Naeemi, Nazim-e-Aala of Jamia Naeemia Lahore, said that SNC was a good initiative which will create uniformity.
“It will also be necessary to improve this curriculum over time according to new research. Madrassahs have no problem with SNC, but the elite can be affected, those who think that this curriculum will destroy their separate identity. People think that madrassahs will protest in this situation, but that will not be the case as any student who has to come to a madrassah to memorise the Holy Quran has to get an education from any government or private school till primary school (class 1-5) first.
“In order to memorise the Holy Quran orally, in most of the madrassahs in Punjab province, the student must be a primary pass. There are also some madrassahs across the province that start teaching memorisation of the Holy Quran directly to young children because there is no arrangement for teaching first, second or third class. In such a situation, the government and the management of the madrassahs will have to find a solution whether they will teach the syllabus before memorisation of the Holy Quran.
Allama Naeemi pointed out another possible conflict with the SNC. He explained that currently, due to the absence of facilities that have the capability to teach syllabus of classes 1 to 5 in certain areas of Punjab and the country, madrassahs are the only option and therefore memorisation of the Holy Quran for children in those places is quite often the only education they have access to.
“Where exactly does the SNC fit into this equation?” he questioned.
Naeemi added that the madrassas do have some reservations and questions about the SNC and that the government and madrassahs’ administrations are holding talks on three main points: First, which subjects would be taught in madrassahs? The second, who will take the exam and the third; will the certificate of passing four subjects related to English, Mathematics, Urdu and Pakistan Studies be issued by the government or the administration of the madrassahs?
POLITICS AND EDUCATION:
Following the passing of the 18th amendment, education became a provincial subject, meaning that the federal government cannot formulate any new policy, especially a new national curriculum, and force a province to follow. Sindh is therefore well within its right to reject and refuse the implementation of the SNC since the PPP is in power there, not the PTI.
Saeed Ghani, Provincial Minister of Sindh for Labour and Information and Human Resources informed that the 18th amendment of the Constitution has empowered provinces to chalk out policies regarding education and curriculum development.
“We (the government of Sindh) will decide about the matter of SNC. We will review SNC and we will implement it if it is better than the current curriculum. But it should be remembered that it will be the decision of the provincial government. The Constitution has provided us this right and we are not going to give it up,” he said.
Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Hassan Murtaza while speaking to this scribe said, “Education is a sensitive matter. The ruling government wants to insert its name into history pages through the agenda of the SNC. We (the politicians) will consider this agenda (SNC) as a national curriculum when the curriculum in the elite schools and in a government school of a backward area would be the same. The government has neither consulted with the opposition nor taken them into confidence in this regard,” he said.
There is also a concern amongst the opposition parties that the implementation of the SNC is being done at fast pace so that it is complete by 2023, according to the government’s schedule, just in time for the next general elections. Some educationists believe that such a transition should be done gradually, with each grade adopting the new curriculum one year at a time, meaning that the whole process would take 12 years, enough for it to grow organically and not disrupt the entire system.
