Plenary – Curriculum and Textbooks: Do they promote critical thinking? Date & Time 30th October 12:00 -1:15 pm Room: A.V Aids Rooms (Main Building – Right side of the entrance) Moderator: Baela Raza Jamil Panelists: Zobaida Mustafa, Chairman Punjab Curriculum Authority (PCA), Neelum Husain Teacher (1), Older children (1) Professor- Anjum J. Paul, Tanveer Jahan,- Zobair Torwali; Fellow Teach for Pakistan Introduction to the Theme After seven years, the National Curriculum (NC) 2006 is still waiting to be fully discovered and implemented. Other than in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, the new textbooks have yet to be in place; in Sindh 2013- 14 is the first year of implementing the NC 2006 in class 1. Teachers and students are still not fully familiar with the current national curriculum, -its structure, vocabularies, and focus on student learning outcomes, pedagogies and principles. Since the 18th Amendment and devolution in 2010 -2011 the provinces are solely responsible for policy, curriculum and textbooks. However, they are still exploring options for a fully indigenized mechanism of introducing the best options of content, subjects and pedagogies most suited to the provinces. Other than Punjab, ensuring deregulation for writing of textbooks, the provinces are rolling back on the policy of ‘multiple textbooks’. The initiative to mobilize the best writers including the respective textbook boards is still a distant dream. Major steps have been taken by the Punjab Curriculum Authority to produce all textbooks expeditiously (under Act 2012 - http://punjablaws.gov.pk/laws/2513.html),but problems of errors, biases and stereotypes persist. The culture of promoting learning only through the textbook is very much a reality overlooking critical thinking and inquiry based learning. In classes 9, 10, 11, 12 the Federal and the Aga Khan Education Board suggest reading many more books; but the schools hardly adhere to that other than those affiliated to the AKUEB; Curriculum and textbooks continue to worry our students, teachers and society; short changing the challenges faced by our society due to narrow interpretations of curriculum, texts and learning as practiced in classrooms and schools. Q. What can be done to make curriculum review and textbook production an ongoing process and does not stop as after 7 years of NC 2006 there should have been a nationwide curriculum review? Q. What can be done to ensure that multiple textbooks are a possibility and the best writers are mobilized for the most the imaginative and high quality content? Q. How can the schools promote a culture that goes beyond textbooks and tests - promotes, inquiry based learning and critical thinking- where students can raise issues about what they experience and have a dialogue for deeper knowledge and reflections? Q. What is the space for ensuring that libraries and reading cultures are an essential part of schools? Moderator: Baela Raza Jamil Baela Raza Jamil is a passionate change agent for Education in Pakistan. She has worked in many capacities from the grassroots to innovations in education to evidence based public policy in Pakistan, USA, UK and Hong Kong. Baela began her career in the Magnet school program of excellence at the North Fulton High School in Atlanta Georgia USA in 2005 as the Assistant Coordinator for curriculum planning, students counselling and mobilizing CSR for public private partnerships. Since 1991 she has been engaged in education transformation in Pakistan at the provincial and federal level in various capacities including technical adviser to the Federal Ministry of Education 2000-2004. A consultant/adviser /trainer to many programs, she is providing program support to Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi, Institute for Professional Learning, South Asia Forum for Education Development, the Sanjan Nagar Public Education Trust and the Citizens Movement for Quality Education (CMQE) of which CLF is also a key strand- Baela is the Founder of CLF and leads the public accountability initiative on learning “Annual Status of Education Report” ASER Pakistan with many partners. She serves on several boards nationally and internationally including the Global Monitoring Report (GMR) UNESCO. Panelists Zubeida Mustafa Zubeida Mustafa – is a celebrated and internationally awarded journalist who worked as Assistant Editor for Dawn from 1975 to 2008. She now writes a weekly column for the paper and one of the areas of special interest to her is Education. Zubeida Mustafa also serves as an Ambassador to the Children’s Literature Festival (CLF). Mr. Saleem Kiyani Mr. Saleem Kiyani has been the former Chairman Punjab Textbook Board and recently placed on the post of the Chairman Punjab Curriculum Authority. Neelam Hussain Neelam Hussain read English Literature at the universities of Punjab, Leeds and Sussex and taught English at Kinnaird College Lahore for twenty two years. She left Kinnaird in 1995 to work fulltime with Simorgh Women’s Resource and Publication Centre as editor, writer, researcher, translator, sporadic publisher and project coordinator. She combines academics with activism and is a member of Women’s Action Forum, Pakistan. She also teaches English Literature to A Level students at Lahore Grammar School. Raheela Akram-Principal SNSS – Hima Campus Raheela Akram is working as a Principal Sanjan Nagar School Hima Campus. She has done MSc.Psychology and is a Diploma holder from the Plymouth State University, USA on Leadership and Pedagogy. She is the first girl in her family to get higher education with the support of her father. She began her teaching career at Sanjan Nagar Higher Secondary School as a psychology teacher. She has also worked in Idara-e-Taleem- o-Aagahi as a “manager assessment and learning”. Raheela has been working in the area of Assessment and research (ASER, WSIP,PTAN etc), Administration, Teachers’ training on curriculum, Annual School planning, Lesson Planning, and Inquiry based learning since past seven years. She leads the first initiative on IB-PYP program in her school. She is a very lively and committed learner. Students – Public and Private Sector Professor- Anjum J. Paul Professor Anjum James Paul is the Chairman Pakistan Minorities Teachers' Association (PMTA), Head of the Department of Political Science at Govt. Postgraduate College Samundri, Distt. Faisalabad. He is a Reviewer of Textbooks and a Curriculum Expert particularly focusing on issues of dominant narratives, bias and marginalization. His work in public policy has yielded many positive results and influenced policies on curriculum and quality in Pakistan. Tanveer Jahan Tanveer Jahan is serving Democratic Commission for Human Development in the capacity of Executive Director since 2003. She is also appointed member National Commission on the Status of Women for a three year term (2013-2016). She is Norwegian Human Rights Fund’s Consultant (2004 to date) and Label STEP Switzerland country representative (2003 to date) in Pakistan. Tanveer Jahan joined the movement for the restoration of democracy, equality for women and human rights education while still a student. She has worked extensively for bringing human rights agenda in small community based organization development work and trained thousands human rights activists across the country. She was actively involved in the fields as varied as education, carpet workers’ rights, religious tolerance, gender equality, and women’s empowerment, legal empowerment of poor, imparting human rights training to police, lawyers and teachers. She designed and carried out campaigns national as well as regional against Death Penalty in Pakistan, Child trafficking as camel jockeys in Gulf States, Child marriage, Violence against women, violence against children. She also carried out campaigns for improvement in working conditions of carpet workers, Tolerance and social harmony. She has developed human rights course for Secondary School Students covering theme as human rights, Non-discrimination, equality, gender discrimination and women’s rights, critical thinking, citizenship, democracy, and tolerance. Zubair Torwali Zubair Torwali is a linguist, researcher and human rights advocate who currently leads Idara Baraye Taleem- o-Taraqi (IBT) or Institute for Education and Development, an organisation works for the preservation, documentation and promotion of the languages and cultures of the linguistic minorities in north Pakistan. IBT has established mother tongue based multilingual education schools in the Torwali community of Swat along with educating 2,000 adult women in Torwali and in Urdu. Zubair Torwali is fellow of Japan's Asian Leadership Fellow Program (ALFP), a public intellectual exchange program for Asia by the Japan Foundation and International House of Japan. In addition Zubair writes articles and columns for The News, Dawn, and Express Tribune, The Friday Times etc on the issues of languages, education, militancy, extremism and cultural diversity. Zubair is also the winner of 2nd prize of Anita Ghulam Ali Award for 'Teachers and Education in Emergencies' for 2010. The Human Rights Watch has also feted Zubair Torwali for his commitment to freedom of expression. .