President for removing disparity among different streams of education, ensuring implementation of SNC

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday called for removing disparity among different streams of education in the country by ensuring implementation of Single National Curriculum (SNC).

He said the focus of education system should be on character building, and promoting critical and creative thinking among students.

The president stated this at a briefing given by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood, Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, Parliamentary Secretary for Education Ms Wajeeha Akram and Secretary Education Mrs Farah Hamid Khan.

Highlighting the importance of education, the president said it was essential to provide quality and research-based education which could play a significant role in the socio-economic development of the country.

The Ministry of Education briefed the meeting about the development of SNC, which was designed in consultation with all the federating units and other stakeholders, including private sector and religious schools (Deeni Madaris).

It highlighted that the SNC had been developed in accordance with the International standards to meet the educational requirements of the country.

The meeting was apprised that the SNC was designed in three phases which would be implemented in all streams of education.

Initially, the new scheme of education would be introduced for the students from Grades 1-5 during the Academic Year 2021-22. Similarly, the process of development of SNC for phase-2 (6-8) and phase-3 (9-12) had already been started.

The meeting was informed that the development of SNC was driven by the key considerations like teachings of Quran and Sunnah, constitutional framework, national policies, aspirations and national standards, alignments with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets, visions of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Muhammad Iqbal, and focus on values.

The president appreciated the efforts of the Ministry of Education and congratulated its entire team for designing a comprehensive Single National Curriculum.