CANTAB Series has been approved by PCTB. It is all because of the dedication of our institute. We are proud to have made a difference in such a chaos created by unbridled, unchecked private publishers. Those private schools, which adopted international course books, forgot to realize that those books might maintain the standard but they tarnished the ideology of Pakistan, culture and religion. On the other hand, local publishers commit such mistakes that affect the national identity through pictures, sentences, gaps and especially maps. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that the child gets the books in his hands, which are authentic, and for that, there are institutes with the name of textbook boards in each province of Punjab, KPK, Sindh, Baluchistan. However, these boards kept these books wholly limited to the government schools. Out of 50% population in schools, 95% does not seem to be homegrown nationals rather they are different creatures for the rest of the 5%.
Although, every textbook board has its jurisdiction over private and public schools, yet they have failed to fulfil their duties. It was due to the untiring efforts of CANTAB PUBLISHERS that this policy succeeded and PCTB issued a notification about its jurisdiction, “It will not allow unregistered and unapproved books”
CANTAB is the first institution, which took part in this process and is the only publishing company, which PCTB evaluated according to its own act and found all the characteristics (Pakistani culture, national ideology and Islamic faith) that were present in a Pakistani book of international standard. Ultimately, the NOC was issued to CANTAB Publishing company of Pakistan.
The benefit of the approval of these books is that the child does not have a wrong idea of Pakistan, especially on the world map. Because, in other books from private publishers, the whole Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, Skardu are shown to be (‘انگ اٹوٹ ‘) of India, in other words – disputed territory. That is how a wrong idea, in the mind of these future decision makers, is being molded, and in this situation, many things are culturally affected. Another loophole is that these books are connecting the young minds with Indian cultural influence. One such book even mentioned the name of an Indian movie as a reference.
Another example of an awkward inclusion in a book of mathematics by a local publisher is a question: ‘How much are the wine bottles purchased for?’ Such elements in these books do not conform to the Pakistani culture and religious values. These painful facts need to be made known to the public and it’s the responsibility of PCTB that the future decision makers should remain Pakistani and not UK or Indian citizen. In fact, O-level and A-level is transforming them into Indian or British people. To keep Pakistaniat and Islamic ideology intact, we must do the needful.
Schools should convey authentic books to their students. International publishers are doing their job honestly but their books are not relevant to our culture. Other books, written by unknown writers are just an individual’s idea, and not approved by anyone and children study these books without investigation.
It is a crucial moment in the history of Pakistan because the progress and survival of a country in the comity of nations solely depends upon its education policy and system. We would like to mention here that Punjab has played a great role in this regard and gave us sufficient space to implement our ideas in spirit in accordance with the national ideology, culture and Islam.