LAHORE: The Textbook Publishers Association (TPA) on Monday protested outside the Quaid-i-Azam Academy for Educational Development against the rollback of the Single National Curriculum (SNC).

According to a news release, at a meeting on the SNC at the Quaid-i-Academy, they were told that the government would reverse the SNC and divide the schools and syllabus into two categories -- core and core-plus groups.

Rejecting their their claim, NCC director Maryam Chughtai told Dawn that all the apprehensions of the publishers had been addressed in the meeting and there were no changes in the curriculum till 2023.

She said they were fixing typo errors in the curriculum and would not update it till 2023 and to fix errors the government did not ask the publishers for another NOC.

TPA says govt promoting class-based education

She said the curriculum was not divided into any core and core plus group. “Only teacher’s recommendations were included in the curriculum as some of the classes were assigned curriculum of higher classes and also some have extra material,” she said.

She said the publishers were twisting the facts and all their grievances were addressed in the meeting conducted on Monday.The TPA said private publishers had developed books in accordance with the SNC after hectic efforts and they were not yet on the market when the NCC director announced changing the books and policy.

It states the publishers were called to discuss the issue, but they were only directed to implement the new orders without any consultation. The publishers would not surrender before Ms Chughtai and would protest against her decision.

“In the past, Ms Chughtai acted as a spokesperson for the SNC and spoke in its support on different news channels, but now she was calling the SNC a trash,” the statement reads.

The publishers alleged that the government was rolling back the SNC and divided the students into core and core-plus groups and two different curriculums were being implemented for them.

They said the government was facilitating the foreign publishers to add or remove any material from the syllabus.

TPA president Fawaz Niaz said a class-based education system was being implemented in the country.

He said the poor children would have to study in the core group, while the rich would be taught in the core plus group. “The essence of the SNC for all the children of the country has died,” he said.

He said the private publishers were supporting the SNC for ending the class based-education system, but the foreign publishers had won and the government and its officers were following their directions.

Mr Niaz said that local private publishers would face billions of rupees loss if the SNC was changed without an audit.

He said they paid millions to get no-objection certificates (NOCs) to print the SNC, but the government’s new policy to change the SNC would incur losses on them.

He said the government should have first completely implemented the SNC in all schools and later get it evaluated. “Without implementing the SNC and reviewing its material, the government and its officers were changing the SNC and also calling it a ‘trash’ on the pressure of the foreign publishers,” he said.

He said they did not know from where the government was getting feedback on the SNC and they would have to face losses because the publishers were asked to get another NOC for the core group syllabus.

Mr Khalid Pervaiz said that private publishers were facing discrimination and would have to face the loss of billions of rupees.

He said the SNC was implemented in the schools in August 2021 and they had deposited Rs1 million to get a NOC and without receiving it, the government was now changing the SNC and asking for another NOC.

He said the publishers did not accept the policy of the government and announced a countrywide protest campaign against it. “We will close markets, hold sit-ins outside national and provincial assemblies and if the government did not stop changing its policy, we would observe a hunger strike,” he said.

He demanded that the government consult stakeholders on bringing or adding anything to the SNC.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2021