One year back, no one could imagine that a country like Pakistan will implement the Single National Curriculum (SNC) like it is now. But the controversies are still there.
People, schools, and even authorities are having diverse views on it. The people and school authorities showed their dissatisfaction with the SNC plan. However, it is fully implemented in the country since March 2021.
The sole purpose of the plan is to ensure fair and quality education for all. The major unacceptance is found in the Private sector. Because they were charging a high number of monthly charges for aligning their students with English expertise and multiple skills through their unique course outlines and multiple unique activity-based frameworks. SNC seems to be big resistance to its unique education design set.
The key reason for the wide unacceptance of SNC is Language Planning and Policy (LPP) differences (Jabeen, 2020). Pakistan is recognized as a multilingual country due to its 74 living languages. The National language policy of the country claims how people use the language and sort out their language education issue. The major challenge is to decide โwhich language should be used as a medium of instruction (MOI).
Because private schools are lean to use English as MOI and public schools are lean to use Urdu as MOS. Other languages are having insignificant importance at the education level. SNC has raised this debate of MOI. Multilingualism demands a better language education policy in Pakistan.
SNC has tried to address the issue of MOI by supporting linguistic diversity. SNC supports the vision of teaching English and Urdu as languages with the capability of communicative competencies instead of just content-based subjects in all public and private sectors. It would help to eradicate the educational and language parity between public and private educational institutes. Provincial languages must be the optional subjects.
SNC would seize the stigma from the Urdu language. On the other side, public schools would make better efforts to improve their English Language teaching and learning process among teachers and students.
Still, the Private schools are not seeming satisfied with SNC due to the challenges in retailing their Unique Practices in education. Similarly, Public schools are resisting adopting SNC with high potential due to a lack of English proficiency skills of their teaching staff.
A participatory approach is required in the issue to ensure the participation of all stakeholders including teachers, parents, school management, political bodies, policymakers, and other education system bodies in power. The stakeholders should work on training, practicing and implementing SNC for the achievement of its milestones to achieve the acquire results.
Reference:
Jabeen, S. (2020). Language planning and policy, and the medium of instruction in the multilingual Pakistan: a void to be filled. International Journal of Multilingualism, 1-18.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14790718.2020.1860064
