Prime Minister Imran Khan said Wednesday when he had gone to the UK after studying at the Aitchison College, Lahore, he felt as if the education he had received at the institution had not made him a Pakistani, but an Englishman, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Addressing an Education Convention in Lahore, he said not only that he was not much familiar with the Pakistani culture, but he also had little knowledge of the religion Islam. “And that was not the case only with India and Pakistan, but wherever the British had ruled there was the same situation.”

“We should have introduced a single curriculum immediately after the creation of Pakistan,” he asserted.

He regretted that prior to the introduction of a single curriculum in the country by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government, there were three systems of education in the country; English, Urdu and religious education.

“And the English system of education was meant only for the ‘selected’ few which inculcated in them a slavish mentality. The focus was more on making people westernized in their attitudes,” he said, and added, “When a nation becomes a slave, it is robbed of its original thought.”

“No government in the past ever bothered to introduce a single curriculum in the country because sons and daughters of ministers studied in English medium schools. So a uniform curriculum has never been a priority for the past governments,” he added.

“Even today when we talk about a single curriculum, people resist it, saying instead of moving forward attempt is being made to make the nation backward,” the prime minister regretted.

He said when he was growing up, the standard of education at government schools was far higher.

Terming the introduction of a single curriculum in the country a ‘turning point’ in the country’s history, PM Imran cautioned that implementation of the new system of education would be a difficult task.

He made it clear that the effort was not to relegate English to a lower level, but to make sure that students did not speak English as a ‘status symbol’. “Not ‘selected few’, but the entire nation should study English.”

The prime minister said it was strange that in Pakistan English was spoken at functions despite the fact that not many people in the audience were familiar with it. “People here prefer to speak English to impress others; to show they are literate.”

Expressing grief over the incident of harassment of a female TikToker at Greater Iqbal Park on August 14th, he called upon the parents to concentrate on the proper upbringing of their children since that was the main reason for the increase in such incidents in the country. “It is a matter of shame and concern that sex crimes are on the rise in Pakistan,” he commented.

He said there was a time when the kind of respect a woman was given in Pakistan was unheard of in the West.

PM Imran also praised Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, saying the kind of work he was doing was matchless. “Punjab governments in the past were hard on words but soft on practice,” he concluded.