KARACHI: The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) organised an education conference on the implications of the Single National Curriculum (SNC) at a local hotel here on Saturday.

The objective of the conference was to sensitise the public at the grassroots level and build momentum regarding the implications of a unified curriculum, while specifically addressing the ambiguities and lacunae in the SNC in the context of the political hegemony and exclusion of religious minorities.

The NCJP has conducted an extensive research on the SNC and its implications for religious minorities. Their analytical study on religious bias in education policy and textbooks titled, ‘Away from a Fairer Future’, was also officially launched during the conference.

While speaking on the matter, senior educationist Dr A.H. Nayyar said that there were religious instructions even in the English language and Urdu Adab textbooks, a norm from the General Ziaul Haq era. “Forcing non-Muslims to study Islamiat violates their basic right, according to Article 22 (1) of the Constitution of Pakistan,” he said.

Implications of Single National Curriculum discussed at conference

“There was also a commission formed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to look into this matter under the leading police and justice sector reform specialist Shoaib Suddle, whose findings noted that Islamiat should be taught as just Islamiat but here there is an overlap of Islamiat in our Urdu, English and Social Sciences textbooks, too. Because of this it is not possible to keep non-Muslim students away from Islamiat,” he said.

“After all, you can’t ask the non-Muslim students to cover their ears or leave the classroom every time Islamic topics come up in other books. One example of this was the Hamd and Naat in Urdu Adab books. But the Council of Islamic Ideology said that the Hamd and Naat there in the Urdu books were to be taken in the literary context and how could they omit it and ignore the 97 per cent Muslim majority students for the three per cent non-Muslim students?” He said.

Speaking on the implications of SNC on minority girls, Prof Dr Ernest Fahim of Selinus University of Sciences and Literature in Lahore said that minority females have to fight for their education. “They won’t get it otherwise,” he said.

“There is a need to enhance the primary education of girls here because educating females brings change to society,” he added.

Dr Asghar Ali Dashti said that the SNC was the Islamisation of curriculum in a country where religious extremism was already prevalent.

“This curriculum divides people into ‘us’ and ‘you’. The ‘us’ group is superior and the ‘you’ group is inferior and is thus to be looked down on,” he said.

“The Constitution of Pakistan itself is discriminatory as non-Muslims here cannot head the state. With the SNC now what kind of values are you passing on to impressionable minds? See, forced conversions are happening already here due to social pressure. In fact, all our policies push minorities to either leave the country or convert to Islam,” he said. Educationist and social worker Dr Sabir Michael said that the curriculum should be like the milk fed to a baby by his mother to help him grow. “But if you get contaminated milk or when you sow a bad seed, you can’t expect a sweet crop. Through the Single National Curriculum we are imposing Islam even though the basic guidelines of the curriculum should revolve around human rights,” he said.

“Studying in local schools, my children often ask me if they are ‘kafir’. I come from a poor background and also happen to be blind and despite that I studied hard and also did my PhD. But people tell me that even after achieving so much in life I’m at a loss because I have not recited the Kalima,” Dr Michael said.

Dr Riaz Shaikh, Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Education at Szabist, said that Pakistan was a unique state where there had been continuous experimentation going on since 1947. “In 2018, we indulged in yet another experiment of turning the state into Riasat-i-Madina instead of making it a truly secular state,” he said.

“We turn a blind eye to all wrongs here such as lynching of students at university campus or public beatings because ‘might is right’,” he said.

“SNC enforces a mercenary mindset. It will sharpen our identity crisis and reinforce apartheid while making the divide between the haves and have-nots bigger. This country needs scientific education, it needs inclusive education, which it is not getting because this system of education is taking you towards segregation,” he said.

Reverend Father Asher Liaqat and Naeem Yousaf Gill of NCJP also spoke.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2023