Over the years, many governments have tried to introduce a uniform education system. Before it rose to power, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf too promised this in its manifesto. After spending a lot of money in pursuit of the ideal, we are apparently back to square one. The policymakers and educationists seem to have failed to reach a consensus, especially on matters of concern for our religious minorities.

The governments, federal as well as provincial, have failed to take concrete steps to ensure that the rights of minorities are protected. The issues raised by the Catholic church remain unresolved.

The Lahore-based Centre for Social Justice, the official spokesperson for the Catholic church, submitted a report to the one-member Commission for Minorities consisting of Dr Shoaib Suddle about instances of hate speech against religious minorities in textbooks, says Peter Jacob, the CSJP executive director.

The Suddle commission was set up by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2019 to enforce its judgment given in 2014 to protect the rights of minorities in Pakistan.

Jacob cited Article 22 of the constitution to make his point. The article states, “safeguards as to educational institutions in respect of religion (b) no citizen shall be denied admission to any educational institution receiving aid from public revenues on the ground only of race, religion, caste or place of birth.”

The three-member bench headed by the then chief justice made some recommendations, including improving the curricula for schools and colleges to promote religious tolerance. The federal government was asked to take appropriate steps to discourage hate speech on social media and bring the delinquents to justice.

Other recommendations by the SC included: “The government should constitute a National Council for Minorities’ Rights to monitor the practical realisation of the rights and safeguards provided to the minorities under the constitution and law. A special police force should be established with special training to protect the places of worship of minorities. The federal government and all provincial governments should ensure the enforcement of the relevant policy directives regarding the reservation of quota for minorities in all services.”

Jacob says, “Nearly five years on, the Supreme Court judgment remains largely unimplemented. In 2018, Supreme Court maintained Justice Jillani’s judgment on the plea of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).”

“In recent years, the debate on the exclusion of unnecessary chapters or topics from public school textbooks has started. The long-standing demands of the Christian community and human rights organisations were ignored in the National Education Policy (NEP) and Single National Curriculum (SNC) debate.”

Jacob says that minorities were not included in the stakeholders’ debate on a single national curriculum.

“The Supreme Court heard the petitions of the HRCP and the CSJ and on March 31 gave its judgment and orders. The Supreme Court rejected a report prepared by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training and the National Curriculum Council on single national curriculum and called it dissatisfactory.”

The chief justice said that no concrete steps had been taken to develop the curriculum. He added that the education ministry would never be able to form a proper curriculum and that it may be better to return to the 1960s curriculum.

“The court summoned the education secretary for the next hearing and directed him to resolve the matter within a month,” recalled Jacob.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, on June 25, 2019, speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, said that the PTI government was going to implement a uniform education system from March 2021. He said this would bring around 2.5 million students at religious seminaries into mainstream education.

Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood claimed that the government would introduce a new syllabus for the primary level (nursery to grade five) in 2021 session as a first step. The new course would then be taught at secondary levels and above from 2022.

Last year, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar too said that the new curriculum would be taught to students across the province in the 2021-2022 session.

Peter says, “Punjab government has already published textbooks for Class 1 to Class 5 as per the old syllabus, which includes religious chapters in English and Urdu books besides the Islamic studies textbooks. This is another issue… Let’s see what the Punjab government will do with these books. They must print all the books as per the new syllabus. We have concerns regarding the new syllabus because the stakeholders were not taken on board.“

Elaine Alam, a founder member of Formation, Awareness and Community Empowerment Society (FACES) says that a Single National Curriculum cannot be implemented in a country with several religious minorities.

Alam says, “The PTI government, in a bid to fulfil their manifesto, came up with a uniform curriculum for public, private and religious seminaries’ students.

“Billions of rupees have been wasted on formulating a Single National Curriculum and National Education Policy. This is not the first time… Back in 2006, in the Musharraf era, the then government made a national education policy, but the clerics did not agreed on it. Comparing the policies proposed in 2006 and 2020, one finds many similarities. Then what was the purpose of spending a huge cache of money, taking on board 400 educationists and, as the government says, providing them training and then making this policy? “

She says, “It was a futile exercise with no outcome at all.” The amount , she says, would have been better spent on improving school infrastructure, teacher training and on reducing the girl dropout ratio.

Alam is critical of Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, who she says stated that his ministry had no funds for teacher training.

Elaine cited the STEM education approach towards learning and development that integrates science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

“Students from minority communities must not be forced to learn the religious studies chapters in textbooks. When you have Islamiyat, then students must be provided with a syllabus that does not contain religious topics in English, Urdu and other textbooks,” added Alam.

A spokesperson for the Punjab human rights minister says the government is against all hate speech. “We are implementing the two percent admissions quota for minorities in public sector universities in the province.”

The writer is a journalist based in Lahore