Single System Debate

Although not recognized by the government yet, but there are also mentionable welfare initiatives that offer experiential learning opportunities for street or gypsy children by offering them flexible timings and improvised, self-designed curriculums based on basic literacy and creativity. All these systems and streams of education have their own goals, represent a certain mindset and help develop economic opportunities for students within their own domains. To push ahead with the idea of single curricula might take away the variety of streams that were able to conveniently address specific preferences of parents and communities.

What is a Single National Curriculum? Why are so many concerns being raised by almost all eminent educationists in Pakistan? To many, the SNC is a replacement for all other curriculums at both the private and public school level. The Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training, Shafqat Mahmood, said in a TV show that the SNC would be enforced at all educational institutions through an act of parliament and, so far, all mainstream political parties appear to be in agreement. The SNC is a way to end “education apartheid” whereas, in reality, it may end up amplifying quality apartheid.

Transparency of the entire curriculum development process is being questioned, as some whose names appeared in the published NCC members’ list later claimed their attendance signatures were taken as their approval of the curriculum, whereas their concerns were not heard or entertained. Some even pointed out that the exercise for setting minimum standards was already elaborately done in 2006, and that this is, in fact, a copy-paste of the same. The only thing that is different this time is that Student Learning Outcomes have been defined for the Islamiyat curriculum, which will now be introduced from Grade 1, instead of Grade 3, as previously done. Educationists and critics of SNC have pointed out that with the menace of already poor learning outcomes in public schools, this will greatly impair learning abilities of children as they will then succumb to more rote-memorization.

There are also major concerns for indoctrination based on the idea of religious nationalism. Dr. Maryam Chughtai, an eminent educationist herself and also a spokesperson for Single National Curriculum has, in many webinars, expressed her idea of using religion positively to encourage good citizenship practices early on. In a very interesting webinar debate, she defended the position that religion can be used as a tool to further secular or nationalistic objectives. But there is an inherent central question on how religion should be taught? The clue for rampant radicalization of youth lies in the methodologies and teachings, which adopt a confessional approach that results in further alienation of non-Muslim and other minority pupils in the school.

Good citizenship behaviours and ethics need not have a certificate of religion. Religious education should be a matter of choice, not compulsion and should at best be considered for public schooling with non-confessional pedagogies. We need to realize that, in Pakistan, the youth is becoming more influenced by extremist religious ideologies. Previous experiments of religious nationalism have already provided worrying consequences. Something that was pervasively introduced at public schools four decades ago needs to be undone, and the solution for it does not lie in introducing more religion in our curriculum. Nor does it lie in ending different streams of education. The only thing that matters now is making education accessible, while not destroying the essence of evolutionary strife for standard settings. Improving on minimum standards does not mean a uniform curriculum for all. It will only end up killing our healthy diversity of education systems.