ICC Note: A conference of civil society organizations recently identified Pakistan’s education policies as one of many systems perpetuating religious intolerance. The conference pointed out how Pakistan’s education system is actually teaching hate against religious minorities through its textbooks and policies. The conference went on to demand Pakistan’s government take concrete steps to combat this trend and help promote religious tolerance.  

04/26/2018 Pakistan (The Nation) – A conference on ‘Right to Education without Discrimination’ was organized by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) in collaboration with Pakistan Study Centre – University of Karachi, and Peace and Development Organization (PDO) held at Karachi on Wednesday.

The participants represented a cross section of society including; academia, students, media, government departments, textbook publishers and civil society.

The discussion was led by panelists; Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed –former Director, Pakistan Study Centre – University of Karachi, Rana Asif Habib- head of the Initiator Human Development Foundation, Peter Jacob- Director, Centre for Social Justice, Dr Safia Urooj, University of Karachi and Muktada Mansoor- Journalist.

Dr Jaffar Ahmed said that the vision of founders of Pakistan was based on a modern and sovereign state. Media is playing a role in spreading religious extremism and hatred. A class based society makes a class based education system.

The panelists said, “The education policy 2009, in use, not only violating Articles 20, 22 and 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan, but also contravenes international human rights law (Articles 14 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 13 (1 and 3) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and Article 18 (4) of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

“The government has prepared the draft of national education policy 2017 that is blind towards incorporating diversity and minorities’ needs. The proposed policy relies on Articles 31 and 25-A (Islamic way of life, right to free and compulsory education) of the constitution of Pakistan, but it ignores the constitutional guarantees under Articles 20, 22 and 36 about religious freedom, safeguards against discrimination in educational institutions with respect to religion and protection of rights of religious minorities. The proposed policy is replica of previous one in the sense that it fails to curb religious discrimination,” they added.

The participants discussed further that the education policy and textbooks in Pakistan presented several discriminations on the basis of religion.

As a result, the religious minorities lag behind in national average in literacy (Christians 11 percent and Hindus 20 percent) according to the national population census 1998.

Therefore, in order to promote religious tolerance, national cohesion and accommodate religious diversity, the speakers and participants urged the Federal government and respective provincial governments to consider implementing some key measures as early as possible for improvement in the education system.

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