Pakistani Curriculum Pits Bile Vs. Nation-Building

Some see educational system fostering hate, where others push nation's identity

By Victoria Floethe, Newser User

Posted Jan 22, 2009 3:40 PM CST

(Newser) – Critics of Pakistan’s mandatory school curriculum say it promotes fear and hatred in children, the Christian Science Monitor reports. “It sounds like the blueprint for a religious fascist state,” said one professor. “You have a country where generations have grown up believing they are surrounded on all sides by enemies, they are the only righteous ones, and the world is out to get them.”

Themes of a fifth-grade social-studies class: “Acknowledge and identify forces that may be working against Pakistan,” “Make speeches on Jihad,” and “India’s evil designs against Pakistan.” But the Ministry of Education plans to unveil a new curriculum in 2010. “If there is any objectionable material, it would certainly be removed,” said a spokesperson.

[Images (6)]

[Quotes (2)]

Pakistani students rally in favor of a religious charity organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Karachi, Dec. 17, 2008. (AP Photo)

More than 100 children rallied against the United Nations for branding the Pakistani charity that runs their schools a terrorist front. (AP Photo)

Girls from the Bajur tribal region are seen in a school supported by UNICEF at the Katcha Garhi camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, Oct. 23, 2008. (AP Photo)

Children memorize the Koran at a madrassa, or Islamic school, in Lahore, Pakistan, Aug. 17, 2008. (AP Photo)

Sara Batool, an injured schoolgirl is evacuated by her mother from a school next to the site of a suicide bombing, Tuesday, March 11, 2008 in Lahore, Pakistan. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Pakistani boys listen to their teacher's explanation during a class on the Koran at a madrassa, or Islamic religious school, in Rawalpindi, March 4, 2008. (AP Photo)

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My 7-year-old came home from school insisting that Indians are our natural-born enemies. ... When I asked him whether my Indian friends were also bad he began to realize that things weren't quite so simple. - Rab Nawaz, journalist

The report notes that the textbooks routinely engage in historical revisionism and place questions designed to portray Hinduism as an inherently iniquitous religion.

- Issam Ahmed, Christian Science Moniter

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Pakistani Curriculum Pits Bile Vs. Nation-Building