A plain guide for parents and teachers to the draft National Curriculum Framework 2026, the call for a common core, and what may change in your child’s books by 2028.
When parents hear “new curriculum”, they think of new books and a bill at the start of the school year. People who write curricula think of a chain with five links. The books are only the third.
Pakistan is now arguing about the first link. Here is a plain guide to what is being decided, why it reaches your kitchen table, and what may change before 2028.
First, what a curriculum actually is
- The framework: the big rules. What school is for, which subjects are taught, how much time each gets, and how learning is checked.
- The curriculum for each subject and class: what a child should know and be able to do by the end of the year.
- The textbooks, written to match it, then reviewed, approved, printed and delivered.
- The teachers, trained to teach it.
- The exams, which should test what the new curriculum asks for, not what the old one did.
Change the first link and every other link has to follow. That takes years, not months. When one link moves faster than the rest, children feel it first.
What is being decided
Since the 18th Amendment, curriculum has been a provincial responsibility, so work is happening at two levels at once.
| Who | What | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| National Curriculum Council (federal) | The draft National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2026, and a curriculum from early childhood to Grade 5 | Seeking feedback |
| Punjab | A revised primary curriculum | Approved for the 2027 academic year |
| Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Revised secondary and higher secondary curricula | Issued |
The case for a common core
At a media briefing in Peshawar, reported on 14 October, former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa education minister Mian Imran Masood urged the federal and provincial governments to agree on a common core curriculum and to allow until April 2028 to implement it. That time, he said, is needed for quality textbooks, teacher training, and teaching and assessment that line up. Separate curricula from the federation, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he warned, could create gaps in standards and difficulties for students who move between provinces.
Arshad Saeed, managing director of Oxford University Press Pakistan, proposed a common core for English, Urdu, mathematics and science, with each province adding its own history, geography and local context through social studies. A shared framework, he said, could reduce duplication and help keep textbook costs manageable. The speakers warned against rushed implementation and asked for time for pilot teaching first.
Masood also pointed to a number every teacher will recognise: Pakistan’s school year has roughly 140 to 145 teaching days, against 192 to 220 in several other countries. Whatever curriculum is chosen has to fit into the days we actually have.
Why others want to slow down
On 8 September, Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal called for a high-level committee to carry out a comprehensive, consensus-based review of NCF 2026, with political parties, provincial assembly members and other stakeholders on board. He asked that the framework be sent to the Prime Minister for detailed review.
Earlier, on 27 March, experts at a review session at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in Islamabad called for a pause in finalising NCF 2026, so that the process could be more evidence-based and consultative. They noted that the national education policy has not been updated since 2009, that private schools, madaris and frontline teachers had been left out of consultation, and that Urdu, the national language, risked being sidelined.
Notice what nearly everyone agrees on: take enough time, listen to teachers, and keep the books, the training and the exams in step. The disagreement is mostly about who decides, how fast, and how much should be shared.
What this could mean for your family
None of what follows has been announced. It is a careful reading of how curriculum changes usually play out.
- New textbooks are likely in some classes over the next two years, starting with the early classes in Punjab, where the revised primary curriculum is due in 2027.
- For a while, provinces may teach different things at different stages. A topic taught in Class 4 in one province might arrive in Class 5 in another.
- Families who move between provinces, or between a provincial and a federal school, may find gaps, or a topic taught twice.
- Teachers will need training, and the first year of any new book is usually the roughest.
- Board exams tend to change last, once the new books are in classrooms.
What parents can do now
You can’t control the committee. You can control what happens at home, and some skills survive every syllabus.
- Reading: fifteen minutes a day, aloud, in Urdu and English, with one question at the end: “What happened, and why?”
- Number sense: mental maths at the shop, halves and quarters while cooking, telling the time on a clock with hands.
- Writing: one short paragraph a week, about anything, in your child’s own words.
- When books change, keep the old and new books side by side. The old one is still good for practice; the new one shows what the school expects now.
- If you move province, ask the new school for its chapter list in each subject, and compare it with the old one over the holidays.
Questions to ask your child’s school
- Which classes are changing books this year or next?
- How will you cover topics that have moved from one class to another?
- Will this term’s tests follow the old book or the new one?
- What training are teachers getting for the new books?
If you teach, read the draft framework when it reaches you and send your comments through whatever channel you are offered. One of the critics’ main points was that frontline teachers had not been heard. That is something teachers themselves can change.
And if a change of books or a move between provinces leaves your child behind in one subject, a few weeks with one patient teacher can close the gap. You can find one on Education360.
