Education for Securitization and Neoliberalization: A Cultural Political Economy Analysis of Pakistan's Single National Curriculum

Abstract

After the electoral victory in 2018, the newly formed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government presented its National Education Policy Framework, chalking out its priorities of bringing more than 22 million out-of-school children to schools, improving educational quality, and introducing a uniform education system in the country. However, the government’s grand ambitions, transpired quickly, only to produce a draft of a new unified curriculum in 2020. This chapter investigates the newly formulated Single National Curriculum (SNC) in Pakistan by using the lens of Critical Cultural Political Economy of Education (CCPEE). To understand the endogenous and exogenous factors shaping the SNC, the chapter argues that securitization and neoliberalization are the significant factors informing the development and the production of the new curriculum.

Citation

Shah, S.A. and jules, t.d. (2023), "Education for Securitization and Neoliberalization: A Cultural Political Economy Analysis of Pakistan's Single National Curriculum", Wiseman, A.W. (Ed.) Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2022 (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 46B), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 183-201. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-36792023000046B011