Afghanistan has broken shackles of slavery: PM Imran Khan

• PM Imran Khan says breaking shackles of minds more difficult, we are determined to bring nation out of such complexes.

• Says “uniform curriculum is the actual path to freedom”.

• Under the first phase, the Single National Curriculum has been implemented for grades pre-1 to 5 starting the current academic year.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said Afghanistan has broken the shackles of slavery, referring to developments taking place in the neighbouring country where the Afghan Taliban have taken control.

This was said by the prime minister at the launch of the first phase of the Single National Curriculum (SNC) for students of grades one to five today

PM Imran Khan said that it is very necessary to break the shackles of slavery. “A slave mind can never achieve anything big,” the premier said, explaining his vision behind it.

The prime minister said the launch of the SNC was the fulfilment of his 25-year-old dream to end educational disparity among different sections of society.

He said nowhere in the world do students of the same country study three curricula as is the case in Pakistan, where students of public and private educational institutions and religious seminaries are studying different syllabi.

The prime minister said he knew that bringing a uniform curriculum will be a difficult task as the elite system will not allow this change and create hurdles in it. He, however, assured that the process that has been started, is irreversible.

He regretted that the difference of Urdu and English-medium schooling has resulted in creating a gulf between different social classes with the ills of intellectual inferiority or superiority complexes.

English, he said, did not remain limited to a language to learn knowledge, but became a status symbol.

“Breaking the shackles of minds is more difficult and we are determined to bring the nation out of such complexes,” he said, stressing that no nation could rise until it relied on its original values and morals.

“Uniform curriculum is the actual path to freedom,” he added.

He expressed satisfaction that in the new curriculum, special emphasis had been laid on the teachings of Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) as an inspiration of ethics and morality. He mentioned that minorities will also be taught about their religions.

The prime minister said that we can only show the way and cannot instil faith in someone’s heart.

He lauded the hard work of Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood and his team in materializing the vision of a single national curriculum.

He also directed to reduce the timeframe for the implementation of the second and third phases and make efforts to get them implemented within six months.