Proposed national curriculum ignores mother languages.

Byline: Imran Gabol

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...