Broken promise? Madrassas to implement SNC in six years

Director National Curriculum Council (NCC) Dr Mariam Chughtai has said that the government is giving five to six years to madrassas (religious seminaries) to adopt the changes that need to be made to switch to the Single National Curriculum (SNC).

To those who say, the #SNC affects every single child and yet we were not asked, here is my response. pic.twitter.com/5sZ0UbuIM7

— Dr. Mariam Chughtai (@MariamChughtai) September 13, 2021

Earlier, Mariam Chughtai has said that Single National Curriculum will help Madrassa students to to qualify for jobs.

As per Madrassah reforms & Single National Curriculum in Pakistan, 36K Madrasah's will be registered with govt.

Approx 4 million students studying in Madarasas will appear in Federal board exams, hence they will be eligible to qualify for jobs which previously they weren't.

(6) pic.twitter.com/DF1XnmePQZ

— السراب (@Zarkawaa) July 26, 2020

Responding to a question about not taking all stakeholders on board, Mariam added, “Let me also point out that every single child was being affected in 2017 as well. The Quran Naazrah Act was passed unanimously in the parliament by every single political party. Not one article in Dawn, not one webinar, not one question, not one tweet about it… but now because this curriculum impacts the children of the rich, suddenly there is a hue and cry about where are all the stakeholders.”

She went on to add, “There was a call in the newspaper to participate [in SNC], not one university expect Agha Khan University applied for it.”

“As far as the Aitchison question is concerned, it’s too quick to assume that Aitchison is rejecting it [SNC]. I read the principal’s statement and they said explicitly they are following SNC in spirit.”

“Rest is all implementation-related, we are giving schools time, we are giving madrassas five to six years to accommodate the changes that need to be made,” Dr Chughtai added.

Prime Minister, Imran Khan in December 2020 said that, “A uniform curriculum is important because it is the only way to streamline the country’s education system which is currently divided on the basis of Urdu-medium schools, English-medium schools, and Madrassahs,” he said.

Single National Curriculum (SNC) is a ‘uniform’ system of education, which means the same curriculum for everyone.