IN a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, a decision has been taken for implementing a uniform national curriculum to eliminate the prevailing class based division in the country’s education sector and to improve the quality of education from Primary to the Intermediate levels. A revised and single curriculum has already been compiled, but it will be taught as first phase measure in schools from class 1st to 5th from the next academic year. Useful subject contents reforms had been done in national school level curriculum in 2006, with subsequent revisions, to implement SLOs based content matter for all subjects at provincial level. Khyber Pukhtunkhwa is leading the way from the previous PTI government. As English language is leading the globe, it is mandatory for the governments of all federating units to shift its focus towards the basic and advance comprehension of English, in order to compete with foreign countries.
Despite, the SLOs based curriculum, the teachers in schools are keen on developing reading and writing skills of students but ignore streaming their potential of speaking and listening, particularly of English because they do not have the teaching and understanding skills to teach all the four modules of English language. The students who are promoted to higher classes in schools and colleges face then difficulty to understand the subject matter of English and science subjects. The only practical and fruitful solution to this deficiency is to appoint English specialist teachers at primary and middle school levels, to achieve the intended goal of dismantling class barriers. Moreover, the existing faults in syllabus design in text books need to be addressed.
English is an international language of acquiring and disseminating modern knowledge. Even in countries, where English is not first medium of instruction, its importance has been acknowledged. Publication of research papers in English by teachers and students from the countries including, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia in International journals amply explains it.
