With the aim to target educational inequality and poor standards, the PTI government introduced “Single National Curriculum” this year and declared it a groundbreaking advancement in Pakistani education. Although the government should have focused on improving the teaching quality, facilities in schools, or the flawed system of assessments, it went for the easy option that required fewer resources and could earn it more credit. Since then, there have been debates whether it is a step towards the future or an attempt to derail the existing system?
To understand it, one needs to look at the idea behind SNC, and that is “equality of opportunity.” And to materialize this, the government should have focused on improving the implementation because introducing a new curriculum will not solve the problem instead create more. On one side, the world is going towards diversity, and here in Pakistan, SNC aims to produce a generation with a unified mindset to promote so-called “patriotism.”
Another problem is extreme censorship, where the books are being sent to the Ulema board for approval. This has led to the excessive influence of Islam on education, and even the science textbooks are being changed to meet the new criteria. Again, when the rest of the world is going towards inclusivity, we isolate our minorities.
In Pakistan, education has been a provincial matter since the 18th Amendment. The idea behind it was to devolve power and create a system where students are being taught according to their needs. But SNC reversed all the progress and tried to hang all keys on one girdle. In light of all these things, one can claim that SNC is indeed a step in the wrong direction that will take Pakistan to the dark ages.
