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Single National Curriculum: Irrelevant to Pakistan
Single National Curriculum, Irrelevant to Pakistan. Why is it so difficult to implement a single unified curriculum in Pakistan? There are several reasons for this. Before we go any further, let’s talk about education.
Education is a fragrance that fascinates those who love to be a guide to humanity. To see light in the darkness, humans make effort to light a kindle. So, education is a kindle and ignorance is the darkness. Whenever the educational kindle lits, the darkness of ignorance disappears.
Importantly, education should reach equally to everyone in society much like the fragrance reach everyone who is bestowed with the sense of smell. This equity-centered education can serve cohesive results only when it is accessible to all at an equal level.
However, certain obstacles intrude in and prevent the way of educational fragrance when a society cannot establish a Single National Curriculum. In Pakistan, the Single National Curriculum cannot be taken as necessary. To understand profoundly why is the Single National Curriculum not necessary for Pakistan, observe the following sections:
Single National Curriculum: Relevant Perspectives
Single National Curriculum (SNC) refers to an educational system, aimed at bringing harmony and national cohesion within the country in the matter of education for all. To understand SNC further, the governments initiate a set of educational policies that the primary and secondary schools have to implement by imparting uniform standards and subjects to the students throughout the country.
What is Single National Curriculum
In a country like Pakistan, the governments through certain eras have devised educational policies and strived to achieve the desired goals of national cohesion through the educational curriculum. To understand deeply, the following questions are of significant importance; What is Single National Curriculum? What is the importance of SNC in a country? What is Pakistan’s National Curriculum? According to an online source, Single National Curriculum is”One system of Education for all, in terms of curriculum, medium of instruction and a common platform of assessment so that all children have a fair and equal opportunity to receive a high-quality education. Single National Curriculum is a step in that direction”
importance of a Single National Curriculum
What is the importance of a Single National Curriculum? According to a reliable source, the importance of SNC can be taken into consideration as” One of the major advantages for adopting a single national curriculum is the creation of equality between people of the society. When properly implemented, all the children will have a fair and equal opportunity to receive a quality education.”
According to a government source, the curriculum of Pakistan can be taken into account as follows: “Pakistan has a national curriculum for early years to Grade 12, which is followed by all schools in the country and abroad. At the secondary level, education is also regulated by exam boards, that are responsible for administering exams and issuing end-of-school certificates based on results from those exams.”
One nation One Curriculum
So, Single Nation Curriculum is an educational standard that is likely to be pursued by all segments within society. Many countries in the world pursue a Single National Curriculum and pave the way to strengthen national integrity through the same educational standard for the whole nation. On the part of the Single National Curriculum, Pakistan’s scenario is evident through the following facts:
First, Pakistan comprises four provinces and certain confederation units, all with diversified cultural and social differences. They have different dialects and languages.
Second, Pakistan has witnessed a continual change in its social transformation together with inborn feudalistic elites ruling the country. Importantly, the urbanized segments of the society have inclined towards the westernization that needs a system to be compatible with the western lifestyle.
Diversified Pakistan
Third, Pakistan is home to a diversified schooling system and fosters a wide variety of school networks within the country. From Karachi to Peshawar and Gilgit-Baltistan, the country has diversified educational institutions including government schools, private schools, and religious seminaries. So, there are several institutes also run for technical purposes by the private and non-profit setups.
Fourth, though Pakistan is a mark of federal and provincial units within its geographical boundaries yet it could not have a uniform educational system, denouncing the Single National Curriculum. This disconformity of the education curriculum is the result of complex cultural, social, and economic disparity among the segments of Pakistani nationals. However, the Single National Curriculum is unlikely to be pursued in Pakistan. To know concerning its reasons, consider the following section.
Single National Curriculum as Irrelevant to Pakistan
In Pakistan, there is a diversified educational curriculum. The absence of a Single National Curriculum is a matter of fact on one hand and has profound reasons on the other. These reasons can be taken into account as follows:
- Pakistan is home to many ethnic groups that hold a cultural system unique to the rest of the country. They are indifferent in their language and culture. The respective governments like the Sindh government have established Sindhi as the mode of instruction in at least rural areas. Due to this difference in languages, a uniform educational system is unlikely to adopt in Pakistan.
- Pakistan has plenty of urban areas. They remained more connected to the communication system. Thus, they have ingrained a predilection towards the Western lifestyle. So, they needed a system that may enable them to capture the footstep of the western lifestyle. To achieve this, they followed the education that has English as a mode of instruction. This is another reason why the single National Curriculum cannot be necessary to Pakistan.
- Pakistan has a vast portion of its population that is much inclined towards their Religion-Islam. Due to their staunch love for Islam, they need a system that may connect them with their faith. On the other hand, a huge chunk of the population is living in rural areas. They have no other options other than religious institutes together with the government’s schools. Furthermore, in the areas including FATA and FANA, the peoples of Pakistan have more inclination towards religious institutes due to geopolitical agendas. This is one more reason why the Single National Curriculum is not necessary to Pakistan.
- In Pakistan, many school networks are running under influential people who exercise their power and influence to run their businesses. That is how the diversity in the curriculum is prevailing. So, the SNC is unnecessary in Pakistan.
Conclusion
The goal of the Single National Curriculum is to ensure equal educational opportunities with equal standards. However, due to the aforementioned reasons, SNC is unnecessary in Pakistan. These reasons will not go away because the SNC is not required for Pakistan on an emergency basis.
Muhammad Irfan is an Internee at the STUDENTINN SOLUTIONS.
