LAHORE: The first attempt of the federal government at centralisation of a uniform curriculum for schools across the country is not short of loopholes.

The first draft of Single National Curriculum proposed by the National Curriculum Council of the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training for students of Grade Pre-I to XII suggests English as a medium of instruction while ignoring all mother languages, raising eyebrows among the stakeholders.

The ministry wished to achieve national integrity and cohesion through bringing uniformity in thoughts on all national issues, interests and problems. The curriculum was considered the only and time-tested instrument to achieve this goal.

The first draft of the national curriculum was shared with the provinces, areas and other stakeholders. Four-day review workshops were conducted in all the federating units where subject and curriculum experts reviewed the draft and compiled their input. The input was incorporated in a second draft that would be reviewed in an upcoming meeting. The first phase of the Single National Curriculum for Grade Pre-I to V is to be finalised by March 31.

Presently, various mediums of instruction were being followed in all federating units owing to Pakistan being a multilingual country. The major native languages of Pakistan were Punjabi and Seraiki in Punjab, Pashto and Hindko in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindhi and Urdu in Sindh, Balochi and Brahvi in Balochistan as well as other languages including Burushaski, Shina, Khowar, Kalash and Wakhi or Xikwor.

Different policies have been adopted regarding the medium of instruction in different eras of the country. In the 1980s, Urdu was made the medium of instruction throughout the country but with the beginning of the 21st century, English was declared as the medium of instruction for all schools.

In the post-devolution scenario, all federating units devised their own policies regarding teaching of different subjects in different languages. Punjab recently changed its medium of instruction to Urdu and English was included as a subject from classes I to V.

A copy of the first national draft available with Dawn showed that the Technical Experts Committee on Curriculum and its sub-committee had proposed English as the medium of instruction not as a subject. It suggested that technical subjects such as mathematics and science be taught in English from the beginning, as later the terminologies used in them could become difficult for students.

According to the proposed framework, English and mathematics/numeracy would be taught in English and Urdu in Urdu in Pre-I; from Grade I to III, English and mathematics in English and Urdu, general knowledge and Islamiat in Urdu; in Grade IV and V, English, science and mathematics in English and Urdu, Islamiat and social studies in Urdu; from Grade VI to VIII, English, mathematics, science, history, geography and computer education in English and Urdu and Islamiat in Urdu; and from Grade IX to XII, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, Pakistan studies and computer education in English and Urdu and Islamiat in Urdu.

The experts committee was requested to review the framework and provide recommendations for finalisation of the policy in its meeting on Monday (today).

Punjab Lok Sangat Convener Amjad Saleem Minhas said that the proposed curriculum has outright ignored the importance of mother languages. He demanded introduction of a compulsory Punjabi language course in each grade from Pre-I to XII.

One of the members of the committee, on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that the participants from Sindh had also rejected the first draft of the proposed national curriculum for ignoring their mother language, Sindhi.

He said if the government wanted to achieve social cohesion, it should have included mother languages of all federating units. “We have timely pointed out our apprehensions regarding ignoring mother languages,” he added.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2020