Education dilemmas in Pakistan: The current curriculum reform

Abstract

Introduction Islam has always been seen as a central tenet of Pakistani national identity. However whilst religion played a crucial role in the creation of the state, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founding father, conceived of Pakistan originally as a secular democracy. Despite this, successive post-independence governments increasingly used Islam to define Pakistan’s national identity. This was particularly the case under General Zia-ul-Haq, whose policy of Islamisation radicalised Pakistani society between 1977 and 1988. Zia’s legacy included a marked Islamisation of the Pakistani school curriculum, but also a heightening of sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shia. Today two fundamental questions for Pakistani society remain: which vision of Islam should the state embrace, and what should be the social and political role of Islam? Each religious group has its own interpretation of Islam and there is no consensus between Shia and Sunnis and other religious minorities such as the Ahmadiyya, who have been declared non-Muslim. A characteristic feature of political life in Pakistan has always been the polarity between religious pressure groups from a modernising, largely urban elite, civilian as well as military, who fundamentally disagree on the answers to both questions. Pakistan was born out of the partition from India. The role of religion was central in the Muslim League’s demand for an independent state, which resulted in major trauma as Muslims from India moved West and Hindus moved East. Partition left over a million dead in the religious riots in both countries. Consequently Islam was central in the Pakistani national identity and therefore seen as having an important role to play in Pakistan’s education system. Islam was seen as the binding force which would keep the different provinces united and give the Pakistani people a sense of national unity. Yet the secession of Bangladesh in 1971 demanded a revisiting of the role played by Islam in Pakistan’s national identity, especially since Islam had failed to keep the eastern province attached as Bengali nationalism triumphed over the unifying power of religion. This resulted in making Islamiyat (the study of Islam) compulsory in schools during the presidency of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.1 What was at first just an exercise in cementing national unity became a fundamentalist project after the military coupof 1977, when a further intensification of Islamisation of social life in general, and schooling in particular, was pursued by General Zia-ul-Haq. Under Zia, Islamic references were included in curricula and textbooks for all school subjects, including the sciences, the social sciences, Urdu and English. The legacy he left was never reversed, even in the years of non-military rule between 1989 and 1999. The most recent education reforms in Pakistan were launched by General Pervez Musharraf in 1999, and for the first time aimed to remove all references to Islam from all parts of the curriculum and textbooks except those for the subject of Islamiyat. This has sparked a nationwide debate on the role of Islam in education and the question of Pakistani national identity, ranging from simple school subjects and teacher training, to the role Pakistan is playing in the ‘War on Terror’. This chapter will begin by surveying the role of Islam in the Pakistani education system prior to 1999, showing how debate over education policy has always been intrinsically linked with both domestic politics and foreign policy issues. It will then describe the current reforms, drawing on interviews conducted with members of the central government’s curriculum wing (which is part of the education ministry), various education boards and education specialists from various academic institutions and think tanks, before concluding that Pakistan’s education system today stands at a crossroads. The success or the failure of the current reforms will not only influence the way the younger Pakistani generation sees Pakistan and the world, but will play a role in determining whether Pakistan will remain a Western ally in the global struggle against militant Islamic extremism.