AMONGST the predicament of minorities in Pakistan is the fact that youngsters belonging to faiths other than Islam either have to study the religion of the majority, or learn about Islamic themes that are included in the textbooks of unrelated subjects.

As some scholars have pointed out, forcibly teaching non-Muslim students Islam — either because of the lack of alternatives or through inducement — violates their constitutional rights.

In this regard, it is welcome that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Textbook Board has begun developing ethics books for the province’s minority students.

Know more: KP begins developing Ethics textbooks for non-Muslim students

While ethics is being taught in other provinces, it is shocking that it took KP so long to offer an alternative to non-Muslim students.

Even the ANP, which ruled the province before the PTI’s rise to power, did not rectify this anomaly. As reported in this paper, many non-Muslim students in KP are forced to study Islamiat due to the lack of ethics textbooks and instructors who could teach them the subject.

This brings us to another major problem: while the province has done well to formulate an ethics textbook, who will teach the subject? As our report indicates there is a shortage of qualified ethics teachers in KP. This problem also exists in other provinces.

In order to create a more tolerant and inclusive society, it is essential that non-Muslim students are not forced to study the religion of the majority. With the addition of KP, ethics will now be taught nationwide, hence there needs to be a trained cadre of instructors in all provinces that can teach the subject to non-Muslim pupils.

Moreover, minorities must be consulted so that their respective religious beliefs are taught to youngsters instead of ethics should they so choose. Then there is the issue of including Islamic topics in subjects as varied as general knowledge, social studies and English.

Of course, this infusion of religious material across the academic spectrum is mostly the work of Ziaul Haq’s ‘Islamisation’ project. It must be realised that Islamiat is a compulsory subject in Pakistan, hence there is little reason to include religious teachings in other subjects.

Doing so poses two major problems: it forces non-Muslim students to study Islam and where Muslim pupils are concerned, this approach can result in diluting the focus of the lesson. Both the issues of non-Muslim students and the inclusion of religious topics in unrelated subjects must be considered in future curriculum reform efforts.

Published in Dawn March 3rd , 2015

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