KARACHI: Experts at a session on Wednesday opposed the Education Policy 2009 and said that it was in violation of Articles 20, 22 and 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan, besides contravening international human rights law (Articles 14 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 13 (1 and 3) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and Article 18 (4) of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. They were speaking at a panel on ‘Right to Education without Discrimination’ conference organised by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) in collaboration with Pakistan Study Centre – University of Karachi, and Peace and Development Organization (PDO) including Dr. Syed Jaffar Ahmed – Director, Pakistan Study Centre – University of Karachi, Peter Jacob- Director, Centre for Social Justice, Dr. Safia Arooj, University of Karachi and Muktada Mansoor, columnist and Rana Asif Habib, head of the Initiator Human Development Foundation, have also raised their concerns on proposed draft of National Education Policy 2017. “The government has prepared the draft of national education policy 2017 but it is blind towards diversity and minorities’ needs. The proposed policy relies on Articles 31 and 25-A (Islamic way of life, right to free and compulsory education) of the Constitution of Pakistan, but it ignores the constitutional guarantees under Articles 20, 22 and 36 about religious freedom, safeguards against discrimination in educational institutions with respect to religion and protection of rights of religious minorities,” said the panelists, adding that the proposed policy was a replica of the previous one in the sense that it failed to curb religious discrimination. The participants also pointed out several discriminations on the basis of religion in textbooks in Pakistan. “The minority students can opt for Ethics, as alternative to Islamic studies which is compulsory subject for Muslim students at school, college levels. The alternative given is impractical; therefore, most of the minority students are forced to study Islamiat,” said a participant, adding that besides Islamiat, other subjects including; social studies, history and languages maintained 30 to 40 percent of the topics about the majority religion that students belonging to religious minorities hade to study and pass. “The textbooks carry biases and hate materials against minority religions, which create negative feeling among students manifested in several incidents exemplified in the killing of Sharoon Masih in Vehari in 2017 by fellow students,” said another participant. One of the participants said that a Hafiz-e-Quran (one who has learnt Quran by heart) were eligible for 10-20 extra marks when enrolling at professional colleges and applying for jobs at the Public Service Commission since 1992. Whereas, no such concession was available for minority students learning their own religious texts. “Since 2017, the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa governments have made the teaching of the Holy Quran compulsory for Muslim students whilst minority students cannot study their own faith. This new arrangement is discriminatory.” As a result, the religious minorities lag behind in national average in literacy (Christians 11 percent and Hindus 20 percent) according to the national population census 1998. Therefore, in order to promote religious tolerance, national cohesion and accommodate religious diversity, the speakers and participants urged the federal government and respective provincial governments to consider implementing several measures as early as possible for improvement in the education system. These were inclusion of Quaid-e-Azam’s speech to constituent assembly on August 11, 1947, in the syllabus for school and colleges and review of school and college curriculum and education policy draft 2017 to ensure that discrimination on the basis of religion did not become a part of textbook and teaching practices. Moreover, it was demanded that the new education policy should reflect a regard for fundamental rights promised in the constitution of Pakistan in holistic manner. The conference passed a resolution demanding that it must be ensured that Supreme Court’s order on June 19, 2014, about promoting peace culture of religious and social tolerance, was complied with. Moreover a compliance report was sought in the Supreme Court by each ministry for education in federal and provincial governments on a special educational plan to enhance literacy among religious minorities and other groups, giving due regard to economic and social marginality. Furthermore, the educational institutions nationalised for around 35 years should be provided with adequate compensatory funds to enhance their capacity and operations and arrangements should be made for students belonging to Hindu, Christian, Sikh and other religious groups to ensure that they can study their own religions as a substitute for Islamiat and Nazrah, it was demanded. “Introduce the provision for minority students of obtaining 10 – 20 extra marks for admissions and jobs on learning their religious teachings, in order to make the policy regarding 5% job quota successful, introduce equivalent quota for admissions for the minority students, especially in colleges, universities, technical training institutes and religious lessons on a particular religion should be limited to religious studies and should not extend to other subjects and the role of religious minorities in creation and progress of Pakistan should be given due place in the curriculum and textbooks,” the conference demanded, adding that the teachers’ training, school environment and co-curricular activities should be designed to maintain respect for all religious traditions, values and acceptance for religious diversity in Pakistan. The participants represented a cross section of society including academia, students, media persons, government officials and civil society. Published in Daily Times, April 26th 2018.