Education plays a vital role in human resource development. It is an instrument for self-reliance, social reconstruction, and sustainable economic development. Education helps in reducing poverty and improving the quality of life leading to better health and survival rates. Education should therefore, equip the youth of the nation with the required knowledge, skills, and competencies which would enable them to contribute to the overall development of the country. Education is required to prepare children for a world of rapid change in technology, increasing interconnectedness, and new forms of employment. In today‘s fast-changing world, the young generation not only requires academic competencies such as literacy, numeracy, and science, but it also needs other competencies such as teamwork, critical thinking, communication, persistence, and creativity.
The curriculum, textbooks and learning materials, teacher education and training, examinations, and assessment are not an end in the education spectrum but means to an end. The ultimate goal of these inputs is equipping the children with knowledge, skills, and dispositions required to successfully lead the nation for economic and social development in this competitive world. Education also refers to bringing changes in attitudes and values leading to respect for law, human rights, religious and social norms and traditions in line with the nation‘s philosophy of life. The curriculum therefore, emphasizes ways and means to produce a conducive learning environment in schools including its various facets like textbooks and learning resources, teacher education and delivery, classroom assessment and evaluation mechanisms and system. curriculum focuses on providing equal learning opportunities to all children in the country in the context of the post-devolution scenario. It provides comprehensive guidelines to develop implement and evaluate the curriculum and related process in order to achieve an educational vision of Pakistan.
Curriculum revision/development is ideally an ongoing, assessment, planning and design, teacher training materials, implementation monitoring, feedback, and evaluation, the curricula renewal is based on the following broad areas of concern.
Incorporating issues of global significance include environment change, degradation, population control, gender issues and international understanding and cooperation. Fostering respect for, prevention of cultural tradition, indigenous values, and ways of life. Fostering is the moral values through Islamic principles and ethics among pupils. Promoting democratic value, respect for an appreciation of cultural diversity that characterize Pakistani society and the broader global society. To introduce competency based curricula by defining mini involved in learning competence at both primary and secondary level.
Following are the steps involved in curriculum development in Pakistan.
Curriculum wing request the provincial centers to prepare draft curriculum for each subject taught in various classes up to the class XII. Provincial curriculum committees prepare curriculum plane.
The draft is sent to the curriculum wing. The national committee of curriculum scrutinized the drafts in the light of the comments. The committee submits its recommendation to the ministry approval. The curriculum schemes duly approved are passed, on the provincial text book.
Nine types of curriculum adaptation:
1. Quantity:
Adapt the number of items that the learner’s expected to learn or number of activities student will complete prior to assessment for mastery. For example, reduced the number of social studies terms a learner must learn at any one time. Add more practice activities or worksheets.
2. Time:
Adapt the time allotted and allowed for learning, task completion or testing, for example, individuals a timeline for completing the task, pace learning difficulty for some learner.
3. Level of support:
Increase the amount of personal assistance to keep the student on task or to reinforce or prompt use of specific skills, enhance adult student’s relationship, use physical space and environmental structure. For example, assign peer buddies, teaching assistant, peer tutors or cross age tutors, specify how to interact with the student or how to structure the environment.
4. Input: adapt the way instruction is delivered to the learner. For example, use different visual aids, enlarge text, plan more concrete examples, provides hands on activities place students in cooperative groups, pre teach key concepts or terms before the lesson.
5. Difficulty:
Adapt the skill level, problem type or the learner may approach the work. For example allow the use of a calculator to figure math problems, simplify tasks direction and change rules to accommodate learner needs.
6. Output:
Adapt who the student can respond to instruction. For example instead of answering questions in writing allow a verbal response, use a communication book for some students, allow students to show knowledge with hands on materials.
7. Participation:
Adapt the extent to which the learner is actively involved in the task. For example, in geography have students hold the globe, while other point out location, ask the students to lead a group. Have the student turn the pages while sitting on your lap.
8. Alternate goals:
Adapt the goals or outcome expectation while using the some materials, when routinely utilized, this is only for student with moderate to severe disabilities. For example, in a social studies lesson, expect a student to be able to locate the colors of the states on a map, while other students learn to locate each state and name the capital.
9. Substitute curriculum:
Provide different instruction and materials to meet learner individual’s goals. When routinely utilized, this is only for students with moderate to serve disabilities. For example, during a language lesson a student is learning toileting skills with an aide.
Factors affecting curriculum development in Pakistan:
As curriculum revision in Pakistan is attempted adhoc basis and is never based on adequate research, experimentation and formative evaluation, the discussion about the failure or success of curriculum implementation will be based on theoretical framework already discussed. As for as desirable outcomes we have not been successful to achieve thus the implementation of curriculum design in Pakistan seems to be a failure.
· Teacher are reluctant to accept the change
· Lack of in-service training
· Political interference
· Economic problems
· Inadequate evaluation
· Lack of commitment of national philosophy
· Disapproval of the society
· Lack of sequence
· Curriculum is more urbanized
· Lack of the teaching materials
