ISLAMABAD: The National Curriculum Council (NCC) has moved a concept paper to the Ministry of Education to include democratic values in the school curriculum. The aim is to highlight and inculcate the importance of the Constitution among pupils from early on. The draft is ready for onward submission to the Prime Minister Office.
The council had prepared a draft following a directive from the federal government. The initiative had been taken up on the directive of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The draft highlights the importance of democracy and the Constitution in the school syllabus. Besides, focus was also being paid to promote inter-faith harmony.
Pakistan have more than 22 million out of school children while many children remain malnourished and lack medical facilities.
The Incremental Initiatives
The Ministry of Education will launch the initiative on Pakistan Day (March 23) after the approval from the PMO. PM’s Strategic Reforms chief Salman Sufi shared that Education Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain will officially launch the initiative.
“We can go for publishing class-wise books on this important topic, after the approval is granted. Moreover, the teachers may also be provided supplementary materials.”
He added that in December last, the NCC had launched an initiative through supplementary materials to highlight animal rights. It is now being taught in Islamabad’s schools.
Know Thy Rights to claim thy Rights
Earlier last week, Salman Sufi had tweeted: “To demand your rights, it’s important to know your rights. He wrote “Pleased to share that on direction of PM… the Constitution of Pakistan will be taught in school curriculum. The move begins from ICT region.”
Seeds of Change
Sources shared that in 2014 the then PM Nawaz Sharif had directed the HEC to revisit the curriculum. He had recommended reforms at the primary, secondary, college and university levels for promoting democratic values. However, the directive was rather misdirected as HEC is not mandated with the school education.
The General Consensus
A senior official observed that the Constitution of 1973 was very comprehensive. Unfortunately, it faced many violations that resulted in the prevailing situation in the country, e.g. poor economy, political polarization, religious hatred, overstepping by many government institutions, dynastic politics.
“If the government is moving towards highlighting the Constitution and democratic values that is an encouraging step. We need full implementation of the Constitution and promote true democracy under which a prime minister could be answerable to the common citizens. Such a system is the only way for the country’s progress,” he said.
