National Curriculum Summit to Push for Shift Towards Critical Thinking Based Learning

The government has decided to conduct a National Curriculum Summit involving all relevant stakeholders to shift the paradigm from learning based on memorization to learning based on critical thinking.

Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training, Rana Tanveer Hussain, convened a high-level meeting at the ministry and took a briefing on the affairs of the National Curriculum Council (NCC) with a special focus on the development of the uniform curriculum. Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal, attended the meeting on special invitation.

Both the ministers received a detailed briefing on the 2017 National Curriculum Framework, the 2017 draft education policy, and also the Single National Curriculum (SNC), and the targets achieved by the last government.

Considering the significance of the uniform curriculum, both the ministers agreed for calling a National Curriculum Summit, wherein, all stakeholders and curriculum experts across the country from the public and private sectors will participate to give their input for review and wider consensus building on the matter. It was agreed that the entire curriculum required a paradigm shift from learning based on memorization to learning based on critical thinking and group learning.

It was also agreed that a PC-1 will be prepared for the state-of-the-art Teachers Training Centre, equipped with the latest facilities and fulfilling all requirements of the public and private sectors for training purposes. The ministers stressed that a nationwide assessment system at the federal level to evaluate the outcomes of educational policies implementation across the country was the need of the hour.

Ahsan Iqbal said that it was PML-N that started four important projects in the past comprising Curriculum Reforms, Exam Reforms, Madrassa Reforms, and Teachers Training Program. He assured of the unwavering support of the Planning Ministry for substantive education-related projects to uplift the public sector education system in accordance with modern requirements.