The National Curriculum Council (NCC) approved first ever National Curriculum Framework (NCF) in eighth NCC meeting held here on Tuesday, says a press release. NCC was constituted under the consensus decision of Inter Provincial Education Ministers' Conference (IPEMC), as a national forum for coordination between the federal government and federating units for curriculum review and development initiatives. NCC consists of three members from each province/area representing their respective education departments, curriculum bureaus and textbook boards.
Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Engineer Baligh ur Rehman congratulated NCC for the historic milestone and said that unanimously approved NCF would provide necessary guidelines for curriculum development, pedagogical and assessment system in the country. While speaking to NCC members, Minister said that development of national level policy document on curriculum framework was an exceptional achievement of the Council and the members should now strive for development of a Minimum National Curriculum for the country, as per the mandate given by IPEMC. He said that after devolution of subject of education, provinces were allowed to develop their own curriculum; however a unanimously approved Minimum National Curriculum would define important contents for curricula of subjects to be taught throughout the country and hence would be representative of concerted national effort. Minister informed Council members that the federal government had just reviewed and finalised the new curriculum for ECCE (pre-primary) to class 5 which would be implemented for federal areas and schools operated by federal government. Textbooks based on the new curriculum were expected to be developed by December end of that year, he added.
The framework document provides broad guidelines on development of subject curriculum, instructional delivery system, assessment and testing system and professional development of teachers. Earlier, NCC also unanimously approved a document on Minimum Standards for Quality Education in Pakistan which sets out minimum national standards for education in seven broad areas.-PR