Shafqat Mahmood Says New Academic Year Will Start In August

The federal minister for education and professional training, Shafqat Mahmood has said that the new academic year will start in August. Shafqat Mahmood took his Twitter and said that private schools are free to use the textbooks devised in compliance with the single national curriculum. Moreover, it is mandatory for all institutes to follow the national curriculum. All the schools, colleges, and universities of Pakistan had been closed for almost two months. The meeting of the national command and operation center was held on 16th January in which it had been decided to reopen the schools for classes 9 to 12 from 18th January 2021 and the primary, middle schools, and universities will be reopened from 1st February 2021.

The federal government has devised a single national curriculum for all the students with the aim to improve the quality of education. According to the federal government, the SNC will be introduced from the next academic year. The federal minister for education and professional training has announced due to an extension in the examination date the new academic year will not start in March. As per the new schedule proposed by the authorities, the annual exams of SSC and HSSC will be held in May-June. Due to prolonged school closures in the academic year 2020, the examination schedule has been changed. 

The SNC has been developed in consultation with the provincial governments and initially the uniform syllabus for classes 1 to 5 will be introduced. All the public and private schools and seminaries will follow the curriculum for the next academic year. The federal ministry has said that all the provincial governments had been informed regarding the textbook policy and the textbooks are in the process according to the unified curriculum. Moreover, the new curriculum for the primary and above classes will also be implemented soon across the country. The federal government has taken this initiative to provide equal learning opportunities to all the students.