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No expert consulted on curriculum design
LAHORE, Feb 15(Daily Times): Several educationists have
criticised the federal government's recently issued white paper, pointing out
that core issues like curriculum design have been finalised without consulting
the people or curriculum development experts.
Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi
chairperson Dr Baela Raza Jamil said curriculum was the soul of every education
system and should be developed after a through debate on its various aspects and
under a strong national education policy, but the government had finalised the
national curriculum from class 1 to class 12 before the formation of a national
education policy. She praised the process of discussion between the provinces
and the federal government regarding the development of an education policy but
said that the pre mature development of the curriculum was a bad omen since the
curriculum covered methods of teaching, student assessment, educational
environment and several other key factors. Dr Jamila stressed the need for a new
curriculum for the 2008-09 session.
Historian Dr Mubarak Ali said the
government had not bothered to teach the new generation about the region's
overall history and only taught them about scattered events.
He said the
authorities had never asked a professional historian to help them develop the
curriculum.
Dr Mubarak said the curriculum was developed mostly by
bureaucrats and teachers in Pakistan even though it was a job for subject
specialists. "I am a subject specialist but I was never consulted… other
subjects have also met the same fate," he added.
He said history should
be taught starting from prehistoric times. Dr Mubarak added that in Pakistan,
personality-oriented history was being taught and warriors like Alexander the
Great and Mahmood Ghaznavi were being portrayed as heroes. This he said fuelled
extremism and violent thoughts in the minds of the new generation. He said
teaching such an insufficient and biased history could leave the next generation
confused about their origin.
"We are still stuck with the history of
dictatorship and people like Alexander and Ghaznavi are being portrayed as
heroes instead of scholars like Al-Beroni, Abu Al-Fazl," he said. He said
nothing could be changed without the development of a well-researched and
unbiased education policy.
Provincial education minister Imran Masood
said that federal government was working on the development of a strong
education policy, based on the country's educational census and other facts and
the recently released white paper was aimed at informing people about the
ongoing developments in the field of education as well as getting feedback from
the country's educationists.
He said the government had also sought
comments from overseas Pakistani educationists. The minister said curriculum
development was part of the system and could be revised in view of future needs.
He added that curriculum development would continue as scheduled since it was
being done after keen considerations. He said inter-provincial ministerial
meetings aimed at addressing issues related to all the provinces and form an
education policy acceptable to all of them. He said the government was not
taking any hasty decisions because of the upcoming elections. He hoped that the
formation of a new education policy would continue smoothly even after the
elections.
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| Education News | | Updated: 24 May, 2012 |
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