Punjab slashes school curriculum by half

 The Punjab government has decided to cut down 50% of its school curriculum from grades one to 10.

The province’s education department announced that it will turn the curriculum “smart” by reducing more than half of it. It said the decision was taken in light of the time lost by students during the coronavirus pandemic.

All schools in the province have been instructed to reduce subjects from their syllabuses after taking advice from teachers and textbook experts. The experts have been asked to give a critical perspective on the new syllabuses and submit a report to the government.

The smart syllabus will be sent to the management of all private and public schools in Punjab. It will also be available online. “The syllabuses will only include those chapters or topics that are important for students while others will be removed,” the department said, adding that it is working on a list of the topics to be removed.

The new syllabus will be easily completed during the educational year September 2020 to February 2021. Examinations will be taken on the basis of these chapters.

In July, the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board banned the sale and printing of 100 textbooks on Thursday for having anti-Pakistan and anti-Islamic content.

According to the board, the banned books contained ‘blasphemous’ and ‘anti-Islamic’ content against the caliphs. The birth dates of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal in the books were incorrect and Azad Kashmir was shown as a part of India in the maps.

The Punjab Assembly also recently passed the Punjab Tahaffuz-e-Bunyad-e-Islam Act, 2020. It states that Lahore’s director -general of public relations will have the power to visit and inspect any printing press, publication house, book store and confiscate any books before or after printing.

Publishers have been obliged to provide four copies of their books published to the authorised officer the day they are published.