CURRICULUM CHANGE IN PAKISTAN: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE PAST AND THE WAY FORWARD

Muqaddas Butt; Shumaila Mahmood; Tanzeela Urooj

Muqaddas Butt Assistant Professor, Department of Education, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan
Shumaila Mahmood Assistant Professor, Department of Education, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan
Tanzeela Urooj Assistant Professor, Department of Education, University of Loralai, Balochistan, Pakistan

Keywords: English Curriculum, curriculum change, Curriculum change 2006, teachers’ involvement in change

Abstract

For contributing to the inherent dynamic nature of society, things are always moving, developing, growing and changing. Education is fundamental in responding to the societal change therefore, change is inevitable in education too. The immediate context of this paper is Punjab (Pakistan) followed by the implementation process of the most recent change in secondary school National Curriculum for English. The focus revolves around the questions; ‘to what extent the secondary school English teachers were involved in planning and designing English curriculum change (CC2006), and what the contextual conditions secondary school teachers were provided enabling them to enact CC2006 effectively? The study adopted a mixed method approach. The quantitative data was collected by administering questionnaire towards 243 secondary school English teachers followed by conducting the case studies of four secondary schools for gathering the qualitative data. The findings revealed that teachers were seldom consulted during planning or design phase of CC2006.