PESHAWAR, Aug 11: The Curriculum Review Committee of NWFP Education Commission has rejected deletion of material related to the ideology of Pakistan, Islamic ideology, and national leaders.
It recommended to the federal ministry of education that current curriculum shouldn't be changed. The NWFP Education Commission, in response to the recommendations contained in a report entitled 'Subtle Subversion', prepared by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), an Islamabad-based think tank, had formed a 13-member Curriculum Review Committee.
The committee reviewed the proposed changes in the current curriculum and textbooks from Class I to Class XII in the subjects of Urdu, English, Social Studies and Civics and prepared a report after an analysis of curriculum and textbooks.
The report, which was presented to Federal Education Minister Zobaida Jalal this month by NWFP Education Minister Maulana Fazl-i-Ali Haqani, had rejected changes proposed in the SDPI report.
A member of the NWFP Education Commission said that no new changes were proposed by the committee but the commission had certainly some reservations about deletion of material relating to Islamic teachings, ideology of Pakistan, the Pakistan Movement, key religious and political leaders and historic events.
The SDPI had proposed changes in textbooks of class I to class XII in the subjects of Urdu, English, Social Studies and Civics. The SDPI, in its report compiled by 29 members belonging to various fields, had recommended that educational reforms would require establishment of a National Education Board and abolition of the Curriculum Wing in the Ministry of Education.
It also proposed abolition of textbook boards. 'The Subtle Subversion' report says that current curriculum and textbooks contain material that is factually inaccurate and has omissions that serve to distort the nature of actual events in our history.
The report says that the material incites militancy and violence, including encouragement of Jihad and Shahadat, has perspectives that encourage prejudice, bigotry and discrimination, especially against other nations, women and religious minorities.
The report criticizes current curriculum for what it claims 'its insensitivity' to religious diversity of the nation in the current curriculum as the teaching of Islamiat was made compulsory for the non-Muslim students and its assertion of the Ideology of Pakistan.
"The phrase 'Ideology of Pakistan' had no historical basis in the Pakistan Movement," the report says. "Associated with the insistence on the ideology of Pakistan has been an essential component of hate against India and the Hindus".