Review of Reading Goals in the National Curriculum of English Language (Grades 11-12) in Pakistan

This review of an official document launched by the Ministry of Education of Pakistan reports on the goals set for teaching of reading and critical thinking skills at tertiary level. The report reviews the benchmarks and the goals for reading skills, set in the curriculum, in relation with an independent research study conducted to evaluate one of the textbooks being taught to achieve the same goals in Pakistani mainstream state colleges. The report highlights that the curriculum, despite setting appropriate goals for the level, does not provide guidance on the teaching methodologies and teaching materials, which resulted in failure to achieve these goals in classroom. The report also proposes critical pedagogy as a potential approach to be used to fill the gap between the learning goals in the curriculum and the teaching as well as learning straggles.