LAHORE: The outright rejection of all the 106 manuscripts sent to provincial school education department by Punjab Curriculum Authority for selecting seven of them for printing textbooks based on new curricula will result not only in reversion to age-old content but also cause confusion among Class-VIII students in the next academic session.

The Punjab Curriculum Authority (PCA) had granted No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to 106 manuscripts for seven textbooks for Class-VIII in December last year and the school education department’s selection committee was required to finalise seven manuscripts for printing and provision of textbooks based on new curriculum.

The school education department’s selection committee allegedly went beyond its mandate by reviewing the manuscripts and reportedly recommending that none of these were worth publishing. It implies the Grade-VIII students would be studying textbooks based on decade-old curricula.

School education department Secretary Abdul Jabbar Shaheen neither responded to a phone call nor an SMS sent on his mobile phone.

Punjab government spokesman, however, quoted Mr Shaheen as saying that as all the 106 manuscripts were replete with mistakes, they could not be considered for publishing textbooks.

The publishers, who have spent millions of rupees and innumerable working hours for the development of Grade-VIII textbooks’ manuscripts, are also at loss as a result of this imbroglio involving PCA, PTB and school education department top officials.

The Gohar Publishers, meanwhile, has published mathematics, English, science, history and Islamiyat textbooks based on new curricula and marketed them. Its Managing Director Abuzar Ghaffari said the Punjab government had been publishing textbooks based on modern curricula through competition amongst private publishers for last few years. Regretting the situation, he said only textbooks based on new curricula would be beneficial for Class-VIII students joining the next academic session.

PCA Chairman Saleem Akhtar Kiyani says the school education department secretary had submitted in the Supreme Court that the Punjab government’s committee would select seven best manuscripts out of 106 manuscripts by January 29, 2014. He alleged the secretary instead went beyond his mandate and challenged all manuscripts having NOCs issued by the authority.

He said the PTB had also given an undertaking before the Supreme Court that it would submit Class-VIII textbooks manuscripts to the PCA being an agency, but neither the board submitted the manuscripts nor the secretary directed it to do so.

Mr Kiyani said the secretary instead launched a campaign that all manuscripts were full of mistakes and hindered the production of textbooks based on new curricula.

Besides returning to the age-old curricula, he said, the Class-VIII students would also miss he opportunity to read Holy Quran’s paras (chapters) No 21, 22 and 30 containing 44 Surahs (one-third of Quran) out of total 114 Surahs. He said the Class-VIII students would also miss some 530 Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) included in the new curricula. Under the new curricula the students were to study history and geography instead of the Pakistan Studies.

As the Directorate of Staff Development was training teachers and Punjab Examination Commission holding Class-VIII exams on the basis of the SLOs, the PCA chairman said all stakeholders, including Class-VIII students would be facing innumerable problems during the next academic session.

“The Punjab school education department had delayed the selection of manuscripts to paralyse the PCA and turning age-old curricula textbooks into a fait accompli for students,” the PCA chairman alleged.