A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with theclaim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure t

Curriculum does play an important role in shaping the knowledge that a student gathers at school. As it varies from one school to another, making any objective assessment for accountability and transparency difficult, there is a demand that nation should require that all its students to study same national curriculum till they enter college. However I disagree with such a proposition as it has several disadvantages which outweigh its benefits.

Firstly, a uniform national curriculum fails to take into account diversity in the nation. A nation consists of myriad diversity in the form of religion, race, language and culture. Whenever uniformity is imposed from above it does create consternation among the minorities as most of decisions are taken to suit the majority. It can finally lead to schism in the unity of the country. For example, let us consider the case of Turkish sultanate before the world war. After the young turk movement the government tried to introduce uniform islamic curriculum that was seriously opposed by the christian slav population of the sultanate. This was one of the major reasons causing the Balkan crisis and subsequent dissolution of sultanate. Such uniform curriculum is only suitable exceptional cases when there is uniformity within the nation such as Japan which introduced such a change as part of meiji restoration.

Secondly, it fails to take into account the circumstances within a particular school. A school may not have any resources to make changes required by the national curriculum due to lack of both the financial and human resources in that locality. Unless the government makes specific clauses that provide such additional support, any attempt to force such a change on throats of schools could be counterproductive for students in the long run producing inadequate educational outcomes.

Thirdly, any attempt to make the changes should account for the specific needs of certain children. A uniform national curriculum may not cater to needs of differently abled sections of the students. As need to maintain uniformity requires removing certain subjects like arts it prevents students from developing that aspect of his personality. This is more so for poor students as rich can always compensate it by going for tuitions outside and poor generally cannot afford it.

On the other hand, same national curriculum does provide benefits in the form of greater accountability, transparency and uniformity in evaluating the performance of the schools and students. It also provides the advantage for colleges as they have better idea of consistency of school system and adequately design their pedagogy and entrance requirements.

In conclusion, the disadvantages of uniform national curriculum in the form of inability to account for the diversity, specific needs of the students and circumstances of school far outweigh the benefits in the form of accountability, transparency and uniformity.