Changes in textbooks: UNHCR refutes allegations

PESHAWAR: The United Nation (UN) refugee agency has denied altering textbooks being provided to refugee schools in Pakistan, explaining that curricula in textbooks from a refugee’s home-country are also used in other refugee situations around the world’. The statement was issued in response to a news story where Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) home ministry had raised concerns over the syllabus for Afghan students studying in refugee camps, terming it ‘anti-Pakistan’. The ministry had subsequently sought reply of the commissionerate for Afghan refugees. UNHCR however, in a statement issued on Monday, stated that they were following the education curriculum of Afghanistan in refugee schools of Pakistan, explaining it would help the children prepare for the day they return to their home country and try to reintegrate into the schooling system there. “Curricula from a refugee’s home-country are also used in other refugee situations around the world,” the statement read.  

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2018.