7.3 OVERVIEW OF THE CURRICULUM OF CLASSES' 1-VIII

Elementary stage offers eight years education including 5 year program, known as primary stage followed by three years education, known as middle stage.

The curriculum at primary stage

It includes;

Languages (2-3)MathematicsGeneral scienceIslamiatSocial studiesPractical work

• Languages, mathematics and Islamiat are given equal weight age and each course is assigned 15. 5% of the total time
• Science is assigned 12.5% and social studies 10% of the total time
• Weightage to the teaching of languages, mathematics and Islamiat is same in classes of primary stage
• There is increased weightage (from 12.8 to 15.4%) to science from class iii to onwards
• Pak/social studies carries 10.2% weightage in classes I and 2. 27% in class iii and 10% in classes iv and v
• The practical course in arts gets 12.8% time allocation in classes 1 and ii, 7.7% in class iii 7.5% in classes iv and v
• The average number of periods at primary stage is of 40 minutes duration
• Analysis of the weightage to various courses indicates small variation within the primary stage, across the courses and classes. The differences are insignificant which may be necessary in view of age, grade and subjects needs.

The curriculum at middle stage

• The curriculum at middle stage offers 9 subjects, including practical work (such as tree plantation, manual work etc)
• The language component is considerably heavier which consists of 3-4 languages, Urdu (national language, provincial language (where required by law), Arabic and English. About 54% of time is allocated to language component.
• At primary stage science is assigned 12.55 and mathematics 15.0% of time (at middle stage, the allocation of time for science reduced to 6.6 6% and mathematics 8.77% (half of the weightage))
• Another significant characteristic at middle stage in the inclusion of agro-technical component which constitutes 3 major braches of studies, i.e. agriculture, home economics and industrial arts.
• Study of Islamiat occupies important position. Equal weightage has been assigned to Islamiat and mathematics