Curricula and socio-political security

Islamiat textbooks for classes 3 to 9 ‘glorify war’; jihad, and the ‘other-isation’ or stereotyping of non-Muslims.


Imtiaz Gul January 12, 2012

Distortion of facts, glorification of war, a bloated sense of Muslims’ self-righteousness and the dehumanisation of followers of ‘other faiths’ or subtle projection of non-Muslims as sub-humans, continues to cast its shadows on the curricula taught in our government schools and madrassas. This, in a way, also imperils the socio-political security of our society. However, the review implementation process — in light of the 2006 curricular revision i.e., review of textbooks, particularly of Islamiat, Pakistan Studies, History and Urdu — with the objective of correcting or rationalising some of the content, has been painfully slow.

The Washington-based International Centre for Religion and Diplomacy and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute partnered in 2011 to conduct field research in all four provinces to analyse the curriculum of public schools and madrassas.

Their report pointed out that Pakistan’s public schools and privately-funded religious madrassas have an “unmistakable tendency to devalue minority religious groups, fostering a climate conducive to acts of discrimination and even violence against them”. Another such is a recent report by the Islamabad-based Peace Education And Development (PEAD) Foundation, which scrutinises the content of textbooks for Pakistan Studies, Islamiat, Urdu and English for classes one to 10 in schools in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This study, too, entails disturbing findings about the quality, nature and connotation of the content being imparted to nascent minds.

The two themes that stand out in the Islamiat textbooks for classes three to nine are ‘glorification of war’; jihad, and the ‘other-isation’ or stereotyping of non-Muslims. The presentation of reality in a unidimensional way is the third recurring theme which essentially distorts history.

Overemphasis on subjects such as jihad is also common. The chapter on this in religious studies books for students of class eight, for instance, defines ‘jihad’ as, ‘doing everything possible and utilising all of the strengths for the purpose of fully practicing Islam and taking it to other people’. Jihad is also explained as a process of clearing the way for Islam to spread and getting rid of ‘fitna’, which is defined as the creation of hurdles in the way of Islam. Such definitions not only express reality through a unidimensional prism, but also paint non-Muslims as ‘others’ and the world outside of Islam as inherently bad. Such texts can very easily sway emotions.

Absence of knowledge on other religions and their teachings, or minimal mention of women (as equal members of society), are also common features in the textbooks that were studied. The whole idea of teaching Islam to students, without any comparative model of other religions like Christianity and Hinduism, amounts to perpetuating ignorance about their teachings, the implicit signal being that the latter are not worth studying.

The PEAD report essentially tried to investigate instances of glorification of war, stereotyping of other faiths and cultures, and classification of gender roles — elements that easily and negatively impact the mental development of the students. This report analyses the textbooks used by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Textbook Board and compares them to textbooks used in other provinces. It finds that the KP textbooks are no exception when it comes to the predominance of religious discourse in their content. It also states that traditional stereotypes of gender roles in society are reinforced in the textbooks. Surprisingly, the provincial government had taken the lead by revising textbooks after 2006 recommendations, yet they still contain the flaws mentioned above.

As a whole, despite the attempts so far to rationalise the overemphasis of religion in the mainstream curriculum, Pakistan’s educationists have to go a long way in reforming study materials. A multi-layered bureaucratic structure, along with the inhibiting mindset, still seem to be the biggest hurdles in the way of broad-based curricula reform. One would hope that devolution of education facilitates rather than obstructs the revision of Islamic and social studies courses. Therein lies our future social security and harmony.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13th, 2012.

COMMENTS (25)

A. K. Khan | 12 years ago | Reply

I think it is high time to focus on the process rather than the product approach. I have been hearing and reading many things about our previous curricula. It is a good sign to point to a weakness in the previous curricula or educational policies, but one must also need to look at the ways for rectifying or improving or overcoming that weakness. In addition to that one must also look at the positive aspects of the previous curricula. There is no doubt that several well-known scholars, educationists and people from different walks of life took part in the designing and development of previous curricula. In this respect, one must be very careful while declaring something as a result of all problems that the country is facing today. For this purpose, one needs to look at the broader level (international domain) and identify the forces that influence / shape our curricula. Then one would be able to understand the present education system of Pakistan. Nevertheless, after 18th Amendment to the constitution, education has become a provincial subject and each province has its own aims and objectives. It is hoped that this time we have curricula of international standard and it would focus on knowledge, skill, attitude and value.

Vikash | 12 years ago | Reply

I don't know what is taught in pakistan but it seems from above article and comments that you are glorifying demolishers of your own civilisation. Looters from arab evaded sub-continent and tried to demolish sevral thousands years old civilisation and great universities of NALANDA VIKRAMSILA and TAKSHSHILA. They masscred thousands of peace loving priests and monks and raped their women folks.They set on fire the great antique library of Nalanda and lots of literature. Still you glorify them as heros of Islam .This is an insult to Islam itself. It was Sufism which made you to covert to Islam not these misanthropist. I hope one day you will realise your own identity and pass it to yonger generation by reform in your syllabus.

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