Shafqat Mehmood explains how new curriculum will benefit students

• Shafqat Mehmood says single national curriculum will improve education standards for students
• Our syllabus can be compared with any other syllabus in the world, says the minister
• Kids studying in madressahs and those in elite schools will enjoy same educational standards, says Shafqat Mehmood
  

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ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood believes the government's new single national curriculum will improve education standards around the country for students. 

The minister was speaking on the Dawn News show "News W!se" where he answered questions about the government's single national curriculum, lamenting how an elite class was benefiting from better educational facilities as compared to students of madressahs and others who were not provided equal opportunities. 

"First of all, our syllabus can be compared with that of any other syllabus around the world," he said. "We have prepared it keeping in mind modern standards [of education]," added Shafqat Mehmood. 

Read more: Shafqat Mahmood makes important announcement on Pakistan's education policy

He lamented how a "certain class" in the country thought that only Cambridge and Oxford knew what educational standards were and how they can be perfected. 

"This is only the thinking of a particular class here," he said. "So, the standards [education in Pakistan] will rise," added the minister. 

When prodded to explain how education standards courtesy the new syllabus will improve, Shafqat said that teachers' training will improve and distance learning will be improved. 

"The kids studying in madressahs and those studying in elite schools will have the same educational standards," he said. "And those standards will be higher, not lower."

Earlier, Mehmood had said that the single national curriculum will be implemented across the country from August 2021. 

The education ministry had said that under the directives of Federal the Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood, the new year "would start now in August 2021 due to extension in examination dates to be held in May/June and also prolonged school closures in the academic year of 2020".

The SNC has been developed in consultation with area governments, said the ministry, adding that students of pre-1 to grade 5 will follow it.

It will come into effect across all public and private schools in the next academic year.

The ministry said that a letter was sent to all provincial and area governments regarding the Textbook Policy under the unified curriculum.