A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college

Education indeed plays a very vital role in transforming an individual and provides him with basic qualities and adequate skillset which is required by him to led a good life ahead. Framing the national curriculum is a vital task for any nation as the future of students depends on what they have learn from their schools and colleges. The author here presents us with his viewpoint that a nation should require all its students to study the same curriculum irrespective of their interests until they enter college.

Keeping the same national curriculum till school level will surely bring out uniformity in the education system and the pattern of grading, schooling and evaluation will be the same throughout. Uniformity and equality for all would be ensured in this case. For example the students studying in rural areas would not face any problems in education and schooling as they would get the same knowledge as compared to the students in big metropolis. They would have the same skillsets, knowledge, and equal opportunities to excel further in life as compared to the other students. For example if introductory course on computers is introduced as mandatory at the school level then all the students across the nation can be benefited, on the contrary to the students getting advantages due to their location and availability of resources. It will enable the nation to ultimately create a strong workforce of students capable of finding a much better future for them. Moreover ensuring a national curriculum would enable students to give only one single entrance test for their future college studies instead of giving several regional entrance tests for appearing to colleges of a particular state. That is the students can compete on a national basis.

However there can be a situation where it is economically not possible for the nation to keep the uniformity in national curriculum particularly when the cost of the infrastructure required to support the institutions and the cost to keep the adequate standards of education are not met by the budget of a particular state within the nation. Also, keeping the same national curriculum will leave the students bereft of knowledge about certain subjects which might have been taught only in certain states. For example there may be a social science subject at school level regarding the lifestyles and cultural heritage of a certain state which may not be of that much national importance and if the subject id taught only in that state then ensuring a national curriculum would not take into consideration the importance of that particular subject. Moreover the decision regarding the uniformity of the national curriculum may at times not be in a states favor. For example if many number of students appear to the colleges of a particular state only then the indigenous students of that state would find it difficult to compete with the extra talented crowd of the other states, and thus these students may have to leave their home states to find a college that meets their requirements. Thus this would be an unfair treatment for such students.

Thus I would like to conclude that a national curriculum is necessary to ensure a spirit of competition among all the students of the nation but on the same hand a state must have certain regulations to modify the curriculum according to its needs to provide knowledge which cannot be given to the students in case of a national curriculum.