Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has formally approved a new curriculum for government schools across Punjab, under which the burden of textbooks will be reduced by 25 percent and modern technology will be incorporated into education.
A special meeting on educational reforms was held under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, during which PECTA, a subsidiary institution of the School Education Department, gave a detailed briefing on the new curriculum.
The meeting reviewed English, Mathematics, Social Studies, Urdu and Early Childhood Education curricula. According to the official statement, the new curriculum aims to discourage rote learning among students and further strengthen their educational foundation.
Under the new curriculum, every textbook will contain a QR code that students can scan to watch video lessons related to the relevant topic.
Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif directed that an AI curriculum be developed for students from Grade 1 to Grade 12. She also called for a focus on establishing laboratories in schools alongside the AI curriculum and ordered that the printing of textbooks be completed before March.
The meeting decided to launch mental health training for teachers in Punjab for the first time, while a proposal to appoint visiting faculty psychologists in every district was also reviewed.
The Chief Minister directed that online counseling facilities be provided to students, while an agreement was also reached on legislation to eliminate corporal punishment in schools.
A proposal to establish discipline corners in classrooms as an alternative to corporal punishment was also considered. It was further agreed that one day a week would be dedicated to teacher training across Punjab, with textbook authors themselves training teachers.
Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif said she wanted to see the best educational model in Punjab’s government schools and stressed that special attention should be given to primary schools to strengthen children’s educational foundations.
She said there was no shortage of resources, but wastage of resources had to be prevented. She added that efforts were being made to increase digital literacy in Punjab’s schools.
Maryam Nawaz Sharif said English learning had already been completed for 35,000 teachers in 31 tehsils across 12 districts.
Regarding corporal punishment, the Chief Minister said that an incident of physical abuse could have a lifelong impact on a child’s life, making effective measures necessary to eliminate it from schools.
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