National Commission for Justice and Peace holds a talk on biases in textbooks.
“I have heard of cases where Muslim students ask non-Muslim high achievers: Why don’t you convert to our religion,” recalled Karamat Ali, the executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research. “And it is not just Muslims and Hindus, but also Shias who are given this treatment. This is because of the horrifying myths about people of other faiths that we fill our children with.”
Ali criticised political parties for having a narrow vision. “Every party says that they’ll bring ‘roti, kapra and makaan’. What about the freedom to practice your religion?”
Dr Bernadette Dean, the principal of St Joseph’s College for Women, spoke about the religious and gender biases found in text books in Pakistan. “In the curriculum, Islamiat was included in the ‘general knowledge’ taught to children and was made compulsory for students in classes one, two and three,” she pointed out.
“This goes against Article 22 of the Constitution, which states that no person will be forced to attain religious education.”
Dean found religious biases in textbooks written for English, Urdu, Pakistan studies and social studies. “Teachers have to teach these textbooks because students are tested on them in the examinations. They don’t have the choice of breaking out of the system,” she said, adding that the cherry on top is the system of rote learning.
“Imagine thousands of students all over Pakistan rote learning biases against people of other religions by heart and then regurgitating them.”
Quoting acclaimed works, such as K. K. Aziz’s ‘Murder of History of Pakistan’ and Nayyar and Salim’s ‘A Subtle Subversion’, she went on to explain how Pakistan’s history is subverted by “omissions and additions”. “Our students aren’t taught that the first chief justice of Pakistan was a Christian,” she said. “Neither are they told that there were more Hindus than Muslims in Karachi at the time of partition.”
The partition is a tricky topic. “When I asked my students to write about the problems faced by Pakistan during partition, they said: Hindus are bad because they didn’t want to give us the Rs200 million promised to us at partition,” she said.
She then spoke about how textbooks fail to represent gender in a fair manner. “Our text books are full of great men,” she explained.
“You hardly ever come across any great women and when they do turn up, you find them in stereotypical roles, as mothers and housewives.” Dean stressed that textbooks need to be rewritten to reflect the changing times.
The executive director of NCJP, Peter Jacob, also wondered that if the study of religion is so important as to be included at every stage in the curriculum, then why does it only focus on Islam. “Why not include other religions as well.”
Sharing her views with The Express Tribune, Dr Nuzhat, the former principal of Government College, Karachi, felt the discussion was particularly saddening if the history of education in Pakistan, and Sindh in particular, was kept in mind.
“Why do we forget that all great schools in Karachi, including Karachi Grammar School and Mama Parsi, were built by non-Muslims? Muslim parents have been dying to get their children admitted into these schools ever since they were built around 100 years ago.”
Published in The Express Tribune, March 19th, 2013.
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Nice to see the discussion here. thank you all guys and a especial thanks to Mashal Usman who cover the story of our conference. If anyone need the study report for the proof or authentication of the research done by National Commission for Justice & Peace please email us @ kashifgf@gmail.com
Allah-hu-Akbar! May all the infidels be converted before the day of judgement so that their souls can be saved and they can be accepted into paradise.
@Karachi Louver:
"I wouldn’t mind a christian asking me to convert to their religion. It is their right to ask. The religion I am following is the best according to me and that is why I am following it. So I would want everyone to benefit from it. I will not ask random people to convert unless he is my very close friend.'
Though you seem to have good intentions, I am afraid you don't realize that your statements reek of prejudice and indirect intolerance.
It would have been fine if you said "The religion I am following is the best "FOR ME", instead of declaring it to be the best in an absolutist sense.
Why do you have to worry about others that "they should benefit from your religion"? What if they think their religions are the best for their own personal pursuits? Why do you think you have to "save" them? You see, at the root of you thinking you are intolerant, absolutist and even may be ignorant and obscurantist.
Why do muslims feel that they have to convert everyone? Why can't they leave everyone else alone? Why does the whole world have to be muslim (perish the thought)? I feel that the world would be better if we had God but no religion.
@A text-book patriot: Most of the great schools in Karachi and even hospitals are made by non-Muslims. From NED, DJ, St. Joseph, St. Patrick, Mama Parsi, Grammar School, Dow Medical and to Agha Khan (regarded as not Muslims by mainstream) they are all set up by non-Muslims. If you are talking about the madarsas then that is a different matter. Thankfully they are all set up by the Muslims. While our Muslim brethren were busy shooting the healthcare volunteers the non-Muslims had set up the best medical schools and hospitals in Pakistan. Remember they only established almost all of these before partition when the population was very small. In return what are we doing to our minorities? Regards, M
@Liberal. Mr./Ms. Liberal do you know the literacy rate in Pakistan?. Do you know how literacy is defined in Pakistan. Do you know that even Doctorate students from Pakistan cannot write and think analytically, that their works are not recognized by many foreign universities. Why dont we just realize where we really are, instead of just pretending.
A 'friend' came to my house, but would not eat my food as he said 'it is not Halal'. Fine, I said and went out and got him 'Halal' food from a restaurant. When I went to his house, I told him the same thing, that I won't eat his food as it is 'Halal'. But he insisted that while 'Halal' food can be eaten by everyone, Muslims cannot eat non-Halal food. I did not eat his food and that was the end of our friendship!
@Polytheist Ji: . You stated The problem with all monotheistic religions.they are convinced they have the truth and so the pressure on others to convert. . That is not entirely True. Of the Three "Religions of the Book" the First one i.e. Judaism does not Proselytize and although, I believe, a few Jewish Non-Orthodox Sects permit Non-Jews to convert into their sect of Judaism, neither Zoroastrianism or Buddhism or Jainism or Sikhism or even those Sections of Hinduism i.e. Vaishnavism, Shivaism etc are considered Monotheistic and they do not put any pressures on others to convrt. . As such it is Two Religions of the Book that put pressure on followers of other Religions to convert to their (ONLY TWO) Religions. . I end with the following God wanted me to be part of a Certain Religion and so he had me Born in my Religion. If GOD wanted me to be a Muslim or Christian then I would have been born in a Muslim or Christain Family. . Cheers
The problem with all monotheistic religions.they are convinced they have the truth and so the pressure on others to convert.
@Foreign Leg: agree with you. Having studied in india, never found any detailed discussion or chapter on partition except a brief mention and that's only context where I remembered any reference to Pakistan. There was no explanation or detail on any religion except to mention that different religions are followed in india namely so-and-so.
Ad yes absolutely zero preaching on gender roles and how women should behave or marriage or anything of the sort.
Incidentally some of the stories i still fondly remember from school books include the one on Hamid and his Ammi where Hamid buys a chimta for his Ammi to protect her hands with the limited money that he got from her to buy sweets on Id. And the chapter in English book where on Christmas a girl buys a gold chain for her husband's watch with the money she gets from selling her hair and the husband gets silver combs to decorate her hair with the money he got from selling his watch. And then I remember the poem on Jhansi ki rani which I used to recite at top of my voice in the neighborhood :)
@Human: If you think Musharraf is so educated and other politicians are not, maybe you should ask us Pakistani women in North America what we thought of his comments in United States that Pakistani women want to get raped to go overseas and get money! Zradri, Nawaz and no other Pakistani politician would ever dare say such things to demean Pakistani women which is why I never support Musharraf. I would prefer Zardari and Nawaz Sharif's education to Musharraf's so called education that made him say such things!
@Liberal: I remember reading an article where it reported that in some Indian textbooks girls are taught that the “right age” to get married is between 18-23, and that a girls aim in life is to get married, and it also said that “meat-eaters” were more aggressive than vegetarians. . What you have "read" is just not true, especially the meat-eaters part. . Ii is possible that there is a fringe book made by someone that may be used for teaching in a few schools, but the vast majority of children go to public schools run by the state government whose text-books are common and heavily scrutinized. . By the way, it may surprise you to know that when I was growing up, we hardly learned about Pakistan. In fact, most of the history at the lower grades are regional and I don't remember if there was anything about the partition.
@Liberal:
wrong. the vast majority of pakistani kids don't even have access to private schools.
will disagree with you there i've just been studying urdu textbooks written by some of the most progressive private publishers for grades 1-8 and they're quite biased too. glorifying warriors, aq khan, forcing islam in non-islamiyat textbooks, etc.
The problem is that students are made to study Islamiyat in subjects that are not Islamiyat. Pick up an Urdu or a Social Studies book by the Sindh Textbook Board or even the OUP National Curriculum 2006 line and it'll start with a Hamd/Dua and have several topics on Muslim personalities, model social norms, etc.
I agree that textbooks are biased everywhere in the world, specially when it comes to history. For example, in the UK, school children don't learn about the British Raj in India and all the atrocities and war crimes committed during it. But I guess the difference is they're choosing to ignore something bad they did to another people in the past and we're choosing to encourage our people to hate some of our own people.
@Iranian @Karachi Louver. Most people if not all follow a certain religion because they are born into it. So the parents bring them up in that particular religion, i.e. teach them prayers, customs, rituals, history, etc. Most people do not study even their own religion, i.e. serious research, they follow whatever they are told to do. Doing otherwise would be heresy. In Pakistan religion is a sensitive subject, look what happened to Salman Taseer, his murderer became a hero and he, a victim automatically became responsible for what Qadri did. In this badly brainwashed, indoctrinated society of ours their is no respect for fellow human beings. This society of ours is very very sick, the only religion that is followed is that one of total anarchy. How many thousands have lost their precious lives, is there any thing like accountability? people in so called authority give speeches, hot air, and nothing else, they have nothing to give, they are totally void, of ethics, morals, totally bankrupt, that is what our society is.
@VINOD. I totally agree with you, I wish there were more people like you.
One of the main purposes of education would be to provide for an environment which encourages questions, encourages inquiry, encourages the use of one's mind to think for himself/ herself, to find out more, to be inquisitive. Does our education system provide for this. Does our classroom environment able to encourage the asking of uncomfortable questions. Are our teachers able to stimulate young minds into thinking instead of rote. To motivate young minds into analytical thinking. To think of the process than the results. That is one small bit in the process of education, of gaining knowledge.
@Karachi Louver: Have you ever wondered why so many are infatuated with the idea of judgement day. All their life they are killing people, spreading hate about other religion and leading such a constricted life bothering 24 hours about the length of their beard or pajama or keeping roza or 5 time namaj or going to church on sunday. They live in fear of dozakh and keep hankering for imaginary hoors of Jannat. And Sir, in this melee and fear of punishments a simple life with love for god, good deeds,love for other human beings and creatures is totally lost. The race for converting others and hating others and wasting time in my religion is better than yours come to my shop. So sad. Children are kept away from true history true values and recognizing that great men are born every where on the surface of the earth and no religion has a monopoly.
It is not only the TEXT books that are in question, the 3 wars that were fought and it's reasons and outcome is also questionable. In the end TRUTH prevails.
I do think that we need to change some of our textbooks, however all the people claiming that Pakistani kids have been brainwashed need to understand that the vast majority of Pakistani kids go to private schools where they have textbooks from private publishers at least up until 8th grade in the metric system, and 13th grade in the Cambridge system, and those books aren't biased.
government textbooks come in between 9th-12th grades in the matric system, and although Islamiat is required in the matric system, non-Muslims are allowed to take "Ethics" instead of Islamiat but a lot of non-Muslims I know usually opt for Islamiat cause they think it's easier.
I think kids in Pakistan get indoctrinated by Maulvis at mosques and by their parents.
As far textbook biases are concerned Pakistan isn't the only country that has biases in it's textbooks, almost every country, even America and Japan and our neighbors have biases in their textbooks.
I remember reading an article where it reported that in some Indian textbooks girls are taught that the "right age" to get married is between 18-23, and that a girls aim in life is to get married, and it also said that "meat-eaters" were more aggressive than vegetarians.
I still think that we need to change our textbooks and make them more secular.
There is no such thing as a "better" religion. Every religion is is just as good as the next one. Or its adherents wouldn't be following it, would they?
@ansar:
so what if somebody ask the other to convert?. if the person believes that its better for the other to convert let him ask.
That is so nice of you.
Now please allow Ahmadis and Christians to carry out conversion campaigns.
@Waseem Arain: No, the headline is not misleading. The problem is that you are a Pakistani which implies that you received a 3rd rate education.
so what if somebody ask the other to convert?. if the person believes that its better for the other to convert let him ask. we all have our intellect to accept or deny after hear the evidence. do why this huge cry over this topic and especially from college professors. they are the ones who should take this things with a grant of salt.
Nice article. Totally agree.
It's good to see such kind of debate is publicly taking place in our society; though not a very new phenomenon, this discourse seems lacking a large coverage of audience and their participation in the past. I hope that with passing time we can enable the larger part of society to actively participate and bring about necessary changes. Effluent classes discussing these topics in their cozy drawing rooms might not affect the way business is carried out in government schools, which probably are the forefront of this menace. Therefore, people from different folds of society must be encouraged to take part and opinion-makers from all factions of society must be taken onboard. If we can have such pluralistic approach towards the issue of corrupting the brains of coming generation, then and only then we can expect to live in peace. Otherwise we’d have to Rest In Peace!
@Karachi Louver: "The religion I am following is the best according to me and that is why I am following it. So I would want everyone to benefit from it." Well it is not just who feel about your religion but everybody feels the same about their religion. Even they have the right to feel that everybody else should benefit from their religion.
@A text-book patriot: you are nitpicking now. that statement may not be entirely accurate but it is not wrong. and focussing on this instead of the main point the article is trying to make is helpful to no one
@Samia - Couldn't agree more with you... Most of the organized religions/ sects are in this conversion business. It gets worse and gets out of hand when folks surreptiously convert the gullible masses, through fradulent claims, miracles etc...
Its a form of violence - though subtle. Best is that faith which is an eclectic mix of different practices, drawing good from each faith as our ancient seers, sufis practised.
@HUM The irony is you still think that the propaganda was correct.
@ Anonymous
you made me remind my office days !!
@Karachi Louver: By asking someone to convert you are implicitly telling them that in your eyes their religion is inferior to yours which can seem very insensitive and even offensive to that person. You think your religion is best, similarly the other person would consider their religion best.
I personally would distance myself from someone who asked me to change their religion because first of all I would not want religion to play a role in my association with others..... My religion is very personal to me and similarly others' religion is very personal to them and I would not want to encroach on their privacy just as I would dislike anyone encroaching upon my privacy and personal sentiments. Yes, if someone proactively enquired about my religion I will provide them the information/ guidance.
Finally, never really saw any example of anyone directly benefiting from specific religions. .
One of the contributing factors in creation of Pakistan, according to our books was that,after Congress won elections in 1937 and formed ministires, Muslims had to undergo a few practices at schools that were deemed contradictory to our faith. And after Pakistan we are providing the same treatment to minorities. How ironic?
"...all great schools...were built by non-muslims"
How untrue and biased that statement is, I can't even begin to contemplate. Negates the entire premise of the article.
Pakistani curriculum needs to be revised thoroughly. It has lies from top to bottom.
This is a very serious issue. Manipulating history and ethics to cater to our version of morality and virtue is far deleterious to the country than any thing imaginable.
Headline is misleading and confusing.
It is no prerequisite to know if a person is a muslim or a jew in order to exchange ideas with them.
Very wwell written & good Point so who is gona bring this change ? only Musharraf can as he studied from St.Patricks High school as he is the only one educated . dont bother asking zardari & nawaz which schools they attended & what did they do for education.
They did not do anything regarding the Blasphemy law
It's about time! But is anyone listening? No comments on this story?
I wouldn't mind a christian asking me to convert to their religion. It is their right to ask. The religion I am following is the best according to me and that is why I am following it. So I would want everyone to benefit from it. I will not ask random people to convert unless he is my very close friend.
No country can progress where lies are fed to the children.
Something positive must be done about it soon. Hope 'soon' is not already too late.
Ha-ha-ha!
Good sign, I am glad that such discussions are taking place in Pakistan.
a very informative article
A well written article that shows the real face of education in our society. good job ET
This is not limited to schools or colleges but extends into professional fields. I personnally witnessed nice hearted physician telling a hindu doctor that she will convert him one day. Guy was marreid with children and he always smiled in response without getting upset. I have to intervene and tell her that if he said same thing otherway round how she will feel. Then she stoped.
The only nice speech was delivered by Dr Bernadette Dean , the principal of St Joseph’s College for Women ,otherwise at the end the participants played Christian christian well !!!! In place of demanding as like that the State should be Secular ,All the Educational Institute and their curriculum should be Secular ,they demanded that the Chapter regarding Other Religion should be added ??? Despite Demanding that in the State there Should be No Majority or Miniority and the Text books should be Secular, they demanded separate curriculum for Miniority ???