PESHAWAR: The Elementary and Secondary Education (E&SE) Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is set to approve the minimum standards of quality education, which have been prepared in consultation with the stakeholders from all the provinces and federal government to maintain uniformity in the education sector.

Minimum standards for quality education have been established with consensus among the provinces’ education departments and the ministry of federal education and professional training with the collaboration of GIZ, a German technical agency. The standards are related to curricula, textbooks, teachers, students’ assessment, school learning environment, etc, according to sources.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa education department is set to take lead in approving the minimum standards’ document in the coming few days, said sources in the education department.

The document has been prepared in consultation with provinces, centre

They said that with the devolution of the curricula to provinces in the light of 18th amendment, setting up minimum standards in the education sector was a vital decision that to some extent would ensure uniformity of education in the country.

The minimum standards for curriculum emphasis clear values that reflect national ideology and culture, a clear expression of the current and future national aims for education and learners’ needs as individuals and citizens.

According to the standards, the curricula must consist of guidelines for promoting intellectual, spiritual, aesthetic, emotional, social and physical development of learners and a sense of high expectations for all, extending horizons and raising aspirations, and outcomes relating to knowledge, skills, as well as personal attitudes and attributes.

Standards for curricula are aimed at promoting national harmony, unity, social cohesion and global citizenship based on religious, philosophical, cultural and psychological foundations of the nation, reveals the document.

The established standards for curricula lay emphasis on understanding, application and creation of knowledge to make education relevant to the lives of students and inculcate lifelong learning besides bringing forth innate faculties/inbuilt potential of learners to make students active, productive, reflective, collaborative and democratic citizens.

The document also promotes higher order of thinking that develop the capacity for self-directed learning, a spirit of inquiry, critical thinking, reasoning and teamwork. It includes emerging trends and concepts that are useful in real life situations for making learning more relevant, meaningful and stimulating. It promotes democratic values for peaceful co-existence, unity in diversity and development of positive attitudes towards fellow human beings through respect and tolerance.

The document suggests a variety of assessment and evaluation strategies to measure knowledge, skills and attitudes as required by all domains of learning and ensures character building and holistic development of students.

The standards for textbooks and other learning materials should be aligned with the curriculum to promote child-centered pedagogy and harmony for national cohesion and integrity.

It supports inquiry-based learning, critical thinking and problem solving free from gender, ethnic, religious, sectarian, geographical, cultural, occupational biases.

According to the minimum standards for teachers, they should know and understand the national curriculum framework and have an in-depth knowledge of the domain, basic concepts, theories, history, structure and process of acquiring knowledge of their respective subjects.

The teachers need to keep themselves abreast of new ideas, emerging concepts, theories, results of research and latest trends at the national and international levels.

Applying multiple ways to impart knowledge to learners, making knowledge applicable to real world situations, developing the diverse talents of all students and helping them develop self-confidence and subject matter competence are also part of the standards for teachers.

The minimum standards dictate that for effective learning environment the schools should have all basic facilities, proper open place, peaceful and safe environment, etc. The sources said that the process to establish minimum standards for quality education was started in February 2013.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2015