The Government of Sindh, in partnership with UNESCO, with the support of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), organized a one-day workshop on Curriculum Review for Integrating Culture and Heritage into Curriculum for Primary, Middle, and Secondary Schools in Sindh’.
UNESCO and the Sindh Education and Literacy Department (SELD) of the Government of Sindh spearheaded this initiative as part of efforts to strengthen the education system of Sindh through the incorporation of cultural heritage into classroom learning. This is a pioneering intervention in Sindh to connect basic education with the concept of sustainable development from the perspective of heritage education.
UNESCO aims to undertake a comprehensive review of the Sindh school education curriculum from grade 1 to 10, identify areas with respect to cultural heritage, and propose an actionable framework to incorporate heritage into curriculum and textbooks at the primary, middle, and secondary school level.
Scholar and Education specialist Mr. Javed Jami Chandio said that the most recent textbooks developed in Sindh show a marked improvement, but there is a need for further improvement.
The workshop was the first effort of its kind to meaningfully engage stakeholders from both the culture and education sectors.
Representatives from SELD, Department of Curriculum Assessment and Research (DCAR), Sindh Textbook Board (STBB), Department of Culture, Tourism, Antiquities, and Archives, along with civil society representatives braved the monsoon rains to congregate in Karachi and engaged in a consultative review process to identify areas of improvement within the curriculum and textbooks. Stakeholders presented recommendations to address policy gaps, conceptual deficits, and operational challenges for the inclusion of heritage into education.
