SDPI Research and News Bulletin

Review of the Textbooks

Ahmed Salim
salim@sdpi.org

Two years ago, the Sustainable Development Policy Institute released a report on textbooks from the perspective of correcting the fallacies, prejudices, and historical falsehood in them.

The subjects selected for the report were Pakistan/Social Studies, Civics, Urdu and English, taught in first to twelfth grades. After 15 months of hard work, education experts – from all over Pakistan and SDPI – launched the report.

It was thought that the Ministry of Education, educational circles and media would evaluate the report after healthy and positive debate and help in forwarding the SDPI’s work, ultimately correcting the shortcomings in the textbooks. However, instead of looking at the contents of the report, it was criticized for elements which were not part of the report.

The National Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education formed a committee to review the report. The majority of the committee members approved the report’s recommendations with few changes. But the ministry announced that the report had not been approved.

A portion of the media was also negative about report, but a large number of people, including educational circles and concerned citizens, expressed their concern over the revelations made in the report.

In the last one year, some parliamentarians and sections of the national and international media want to know if the hate material, prejudice and historical falsehood in the textbooks – documented in the report – have been taken out or not.

New Research Project
On the other hand, after the arrival of the new education minister, there has been visible seriousness in correcting the textbooks’ content. There have been number of encouraging government measures in this direction. For quite sometime, the president and the new education minister have been hinting at making the textbooks content balanced, positive and religiously tolerant. Keeping in view these developments, the SDPI thought it fit to have a review of the four subjects – Pakistan/Social Studies, Civics, Urdu and English – to see what changes have been made.

The old team at SDPI again shouldered the responsibility. The first phase was to collect the textbooks that have been published in 2005, to compare the changes made in the textbooks published in 2002-03. The keenness to update our own work was natural, especially when the government also seemed serious in bringing changes in the textbooks.

The Ministry of Education has a Curriculum Wing, under which a National Review Committee works. The committee approves the textbooks of the four provinces. No provincial textbook board can publish any textbook without the approval of the review committee. Therefore, every province prepares separate books for every subject, but they are written in the light of the Ministry of Education’s instructions and they cannot be published without the approval of the National Review Committee.

The basis of our research are the textbooks of the four provinces. Their study will explain the changes made in the last three years. But we are not only relying on the textbooks. We are trying to contact and solicit views of the subject specialists of the four textbook boards, current and former heads of these boards, experts of textbooks, primary and intermediate teachers, parents and education experts. We visited the provincial textbook boards’ offices, and acquired new and old textbooks.

According to initial findings of the project

• In 2004, the National Textbook Wing changed the Social Studies curriculum for the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, and also announced the introduction of History and Geography in its place. We have acquired its’ text, and it hints at a number of positive changes. But we could not find textbooks of History and Geography, and the staff of the textbook board and the shopkeepers were unaware of any such change. In the market the 2005 editions of Social Studies were available. An official of the Punjab Textbook Board said that the History and Geography books were being written and that they would be introduced in 2006.
• The text concerning Islam in the textbooks of Pakistan Studies in 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades has been reduced, and made part of the Islamiat textbooks. Similarly, the teaching of Pakistan Studies was reduced to one year in the 9th, 10th, and the intermediate grades.
• Civics is also being taught for one year in the 9th, 10th, and the intermediate grades.
• Some officers of the Ministry of Education revealed that the current curriculum has been prepared in 2002 under the guidelines of the last government’s education policy (1998-2010). However, the old education policy does not allow room for many changes. Keeping in view the current needs, work is being done on another education policy, which is expected to be made public this year.
• In 2005, the National Curriculum Wing placed a number of advertisements in the newspapers, looking for textbooks experts for two years on attractive remuneration packages to prepare curriculum in harmony with the present times. We do not have the information about the number of consultants recruited for the job, but it hints at the government’s seriousness in this regard.

Here is an update on our on-going research:

• In depth study of the textbooks is under way. The findings would be published in the form of a report. The initial findings point towards some positive changes.
• Our basic and important task is to compare, (after a thorough study of the) current textbooks with the textbooks of 2002-03, and review how many changes have been made. Apart from the SDPI team, friends and some authors of the first report are also part of the team.
• The research team would also review if, in the presence of National Curriculum Wing’s control and a particular mindset, positive changes are possible or not?
• The research team would review if by making the education a provincial matter, any improvement is possible or not. And why efforts should be made to make provincial curriculum wings empowered and effective to get better results.
• The research team would also look into the possibility of forming an independent National Education Board, which should have members from the Ministry of Education, education experts, teachers, parents and members of the civil society. The board should have main role in the education policy and preparation of curriculum.
• The training of teachers is vital to bring them out of the old mindset, so that they can teach constructively.