PESHAWAR: Educationists have opposed the prime minister’s orders for revision of the curriculum of schools, colleges and universities insisting after the passage of 18th Constitutional Amendment, it was the domain of the provincial governments and not the centre.

“Policy, planning, curriculum and governance have devolved to provinces after the 18th Constitutional Amendment, so the provinces can make changes to curriculum in line with their own needs. The centre can’t interfere in such matters,” Khadim Hussain, the managing director of Bacha Khan Trust Educational Foundation (BKTEF), told Dawn.

On Thursday, the prime minister had asked the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to revise the curriculum of compulsory subjects, including Pakistan Studies, English and Urdu, of all primary, middle and secondary schools as well as colleges and universities after due consultation and approval of the provincial governments.

“The HEC has been assigned to make changes to curriculum, which is negation of the provincial autonomy,” Hussain said.

Insist revising syllabus domain of provinces in post-devolution regime

He said the HEC’s role was confined to university education and that it didn’t have expertise to deal with curriculum other than those of higher education institutions.

The BKTEF managing director said every varsity made own curriculum and got it approved from the respective bodies without the involvement of the HEC and that the prime minister’s directives went against the law.

“The HEC provides guidelines only under which universities make their courses and set books,” he said.

The press release issued by the prime minister’s office and sent to the provinces said, “the amendments shall include chapters aimed at promoting the appreciating of vital necessity of constitutional democracy for Pakistan’s progress and identity besides scaling up awareness level regarding the benefits of democratic process and pluralism in national and international context and strengthen the knowledge base of the students to comprehensively counter the common misunderstanding surrounding constitutional democracy.”

It also called on the HEC to design textbooks in the mentioned subjects that could enhance appreciation of modes of accountability within the constitutional process, like judicial oversight, media, freedom of speech, right to information and elections etc.

The release said to achieve the objectives, the HEC had been instructed to coordinate with academics, universities and textbook publishers to develop within two months, grade-appropriate material, including fables, stories, essays, speeches, teaching guide, teachers training material, activities, extracurricular activities, examinations and other relevant interventions, for all classes from the earliest years to university level for public and private institutions, for discussion and adoption by the federal and provincial governments for the next academic session.

Khadim Hussain said the government could suggest to the provincial chief ministers if there was international commitments regarding some policies but it was exclusively the authority of the federating units to design textbooks.

He said currently, it was not constitutional to direct provinces for changes in curriculum.

When contacted, Bashir Hussain Shah, head of the Directorate of Curricula and Teachers’ Education, too, said the authority to change contents of textbooks rested with the provincial governments but in the post-devolution regime, the centre could still suggest changes to them in the national interest.

“We haven’t received the directives on the matter yet. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will take a decision and we will implement the same,” he said.

He said the provinces and centre could work for promotion of education.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd , 2014