Is SNC an end to Education Apartheid in

Pakistan?

A) Introduction
B) Current Status of Education System in Pakistan:
1) Salient Features of SNC:
i. A Common Curriculum
ii. A common Platform for Assessment
iii. A Common Medium of Instruction
2) Objectives of Educational Policy that SNC needs to Achieve:
i. It must have political and national support
ii. It must end Educational Apartheid
iii. Bring OOSC children into mainstream education
iv. Bring plurality of Ideas into the fore by curbing extremism
Harness intellectual thinking while protection everyone’s inalienable
rights
C) Opponent’s Stance: SNC is an end to Education Apartheid:
1) Equal Opportunities will allow everyone to benefit equally ending education
apartheid
i. Anti-thesis: Current Education System already provides this
opportunity
1. Madrassa Students can study western subjects as per
Musharraf’s 2006 Education Policy

2) Singapore and other countries following One Curriculum have ended education
apartheid
Antithesis: Countries that have diverse curriculums like Scandinavian
countries have also ended education apartheid
 3) Having one common platform form assessment will end education apartheid
i. Anti-Thesis: Rich people can still get their children tutored in best
academies resulting in their more chances of getting better results
even under same platform

D) My Stance: SNC is not ending education apartheid:

1) It cannot be implemented all across Pakistan owing to 18th amendment

under which education is part of provincial subject
i. PPP has already opposed to the idea of SNC in Sindh

2) Robbing people of their inalienable right to opt for any curriculum can be
taken to SC and International Court resulting in its abolition: impractical
policy
i. Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR)
ii. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
iii. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
iv. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

3) Lack of Support from key stakeholders like Senior Academicians render it

a failed policy
i. The Seminar titled 'Educational Dialogue Forum 2020' on
'Uniform Education System: From Conception to
Implementation’ raised this issue of lack of consultation

4) SNC with the same flawed teaching methods will not end education
apartheid
i. Training of 1.9 Million teachers as “Quality of an education system
is directly linked with the quality of its teachers”
 5) Lack of Infrastructure cannot bring 22.8 Million OOSC children into School
which must be done to end education apartheid
i. Without All children having access to education, ending education
apartheid will be a pipedream

6) SNC currently suppresses scientific knowledge which will ultimately

benefit elite class as they have greater access to technology resulting in
being more scientifically aware than general masses
i. MNCs will recruit those with greater scientific knowledge not
those with greater religious knowledge

E) Prospects of ending education apartheid in Pakistan

1) Economy can benefit from best talent which is currently lopsided towards
those benefiting from Private Schools
i. A team of students from Jamia Bait-ul-Salam from Chakwal District
qualified for the final round of Turkey’s biggest tech competition,
TEKNOFES in 2020
2) It will create a homogenous society that cannot be exploited by one faction
of society
i. JUI(F) is able to bring only Madrassas students in its protests due to
education apartheid

3) People cannot be exploited by private businesses that use teaching as an

excuse to make money
i. Private schools have been able to make money out of people’s misery

4) State can better instil ideas nationalist ideas to the masses which does not
feel part of Pakistan
i. Cambridge board does not teach its students about Crown’s
exploitation of the subcontinent
F) Conclusion
Introduction: