Overview
- The Punjab government approved the package in a special meeting chaired by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Thursday that orders a 25% cut in textbook volume, QR codes in every textbook linking to video lessons, introduction of AI from Class I to XII, and a directive to print new books before March.
- The plan adds student welfare measures by introducing teacher mental-health training, directing online counselling services, proposing visiting faculty psychologists for districts, and agreeing in principle to ban corporal punishment with classroom 'discipline corners' as an alternative.
- Authors of the new textbooks will be required to train teachers and the province has set Saturdays aside for teacher upskilling as officials prepare to roll out the revised syllabuses and new classroom practices.
- Key implementation elements remain unresolved and time-sensitive, including age-appropriate AI curriculum content, establishment of school AI laboratories, procurement of devices and internet access for QR/video lessons, and recruitment of qualified counsellors and psychologists.
- The reforms are built on provincial bodies PECTAA/PECTA and earlier work such as recent English training for 35,000 teachers, but success will depend on funding, logistics and assessment changes to ensure smaller textbooks mean lighter learning demands rather than only smaller books.