Pakistan National Curriculum (Mathematics)

Pakistan is a country of more than 200 million with about 64% being under the age of 29 (UNDP 2017. It came into being on August 14, 1947. It is a federation with four provinces, i.e. Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), three territories, i.e. Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and the federal capital Islamabad (ICT).

In Pakistan, all children between 5-16 years of age have a right to education for twelve years of schooling. School education comprises of primary (grades 1–5), middle (grades 6–8), secondary (grades 9–10) and higher secondary (grades 11-12) levels. Government schools are the main providers of school education, however, the share of private schools is also increasing.

The policy context of school education in Pakistan changed with the promulgation of the 18th Amendment by the elected National Parliament in 2010. This devolved power from the Federal to the Provincial level. A key purpose of devolution of education was to improve education service delivery through increased accountability of decision makers to their voters through the devolved structure of governance. However, to maintain minimum educational standards across the country, a National Curriculum Council was approved unanimously by all provinces and areas with the objective to develop minimum curriculum that ensured Minimum National Standards in all subjects and emphasized on national ideology and societal needs. (for details see www.mofept.gov.pk)

All government and most private schools follow the National Curriculum. Until recently the National Curriculum 2006 was being used in the country. https://bisep.edu.pk/downloads/curriculum/Grades-I-XII/pk_al_mt_2006_eng.pdf

However, in August 2021, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training launched the ‘Single National Curriculum’. To date, the primary school curriculum had been finalized while curricula for secondary levels were being finalized. The mathematics curriculum is available at: http://www.mofept.gov.pk/SiteImage/Misc/files/SNC%20Mathematics%201-5.pdf

September 25, 2021