LAHORE: The School Educ­ation Department (SED) of Punjab has decided to implement the single national curriculum from Class VI to VIII from next academic year.

For this purpose, the department also directed private schools to use single national curriculum-aligned textbooks from Class I to VIII, officials said.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government had introduced the first phase of the single national curriculum during the last academic year for primary classes.

The project was launched with the objective of ending disparity in society and providing equal chance to all students to excel. Officials say the curricula for VI, VII and VIII classes have also been revised and there will now be a single curriculum for the public and private schools.

The department has also ordered the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) to publish the single national curriculum books up to the Class VIII, ensuring the new books availability in the market before April 1, 2023.

The officials say the institutions desiring to use books other than the single curriculum have to first obtain permission from the PCTB. The schools that deviate from the single curriculum will have to face severe penalties, including fines from Rs25,000 to Rs500,000, for violating rules and regulations, they explain.

The education department is also planning to launch single curriculum syllabus for Classes IX and X, the officials say, adding that those books will be published before April 1, 2024.

The Centre for Social Justice and the Working Group for Inclusive Education (WGIE), after reviewing the final core curriculum for secondary classes, observed that the revised curriculum did not incorporate most of the changes, which had been suggested to the National Curriculum Council for English, Urdu, Geography and History.

The WGIE said the Punjab government was ignoring the learning losses incurred due to the pandemic and other factors and turning the schools into seminaries, reducing the scope of education in science, mathematics and social sciences.

In August last year, the then prime minister Imran Khan had launched the single curriculum at the primary level.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2022