Textbooks & Curriculum Archive
The Joy of Reading – by AZ: I had just taken to reading. I had just discovered the art of leaving my body to sit impassive in a crumpled up attitude in a chair or sofa, while I wandered over the hills and far away in
Shahbaz Sharif reinserts Sunni Islamist chapters in school curricula after joint protest by Ansar Abbasi and Sipah-e-Sahaba: We regret to announce that in response to a joint protest by Deobandi militants of the Sipah-e-Sahaba (ASWJ-LeJ) and their right-wing lackeys in the Jang Group (led by Ansar Abbasi Deobandi), PML-N led Punjab government has decided to cancel
Hate content in Punjab, Sindh school curricula -by Mansoor Malik: The primary and secondary schools curricula (being taught to children in public and private schools in Punjab and Sindh) is replete with content that can fan hatred, prejudices, torture, extremism and religious intolerance in society. The curricula ‘hate material’
A comment on Hussain Haqqani’s lecture on clashing U.S.-Pakistani narratives: In this lecture organized by the Chautauqua Institution, Husain Haqqani, former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., seeks to explain the notorious love and hate relationship between Pakistan and U.S. Tracing the history of Pakistan-U.S. relations, Haqqani touches on some
The Saudi fifth column on our nation’s campuses -by Lee Kaplan: From Riyadh to Ramallah to the Ivy League, Saudi Arabia’s “Wahhabi Lobby” is funding the goals of radical Islam and undermining America’s War On Terror. The press has reported the Department of Justice’s closures of Saudi “charitable” fronts like
Campus politics for a democratic society -by Fawad Hasan: We vehemently demand for democracy and freedom of speech in our society to make it certain that every individual has his say over the important issues affecting his socio-economic life. Democracy, humans’ rights, opposing oppression and suppression, progressive politics,
Sleeping with the Enemy: US Partnership with Saudi-Wahhabis – by Rusty Walker: If I may ask the reader, would you conduct business with a country where Human Rights Watch list multiple egregious acts against its own society? HRW, travelers and oppressed citizens there (using fake identity or risk imprisonment) confirm the
Pak Studies for Dummies – by Ali Aftab Saeed: Hoodwinking history by being clever-and-a-half Student of Matric? Intermediate? Bachelors? Fear no more and rejoice, for your Pakistan Studies-related troubles are finally over. The following is for the benefit of people like you, who have gone through severe mental
The identity crisis of the urban middle classes – by Murtaza Haider: From the banks of river Nile to the sand dunes of Kashgar Prefecture, Muslims were perceived as one people by the poet philosopher Muhammad Iqbal. All other manifestations of a person’s identity were deemed irrelevant. The unity in faith
Of conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists – by Abdul Majeed Abid: Source: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinions; he is not entitled to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynihan A Conspiracy theory can be defined as “collection of distorted or misrepresented facts presented to propagate a particular agenda”. Conspiracy
US commission: Pakistan schools teach Hindu hatred: Editor’s Note: Curriculum reform is the need of the hour. In the last couple of days, 3 Pakistani Hindu doctors have been killed and Pakistan’s peaceful, hardworking and patriotic Hindu, Christain and Ahmadi muslims face the brunt of violence
Madrassa graduates and labour market mismatches -by Murtaza Haider: The proliferation of madrassa education in Pakistan has contributed to labour market mismatches. According to the Pakistan government’s own statistics in 2008 alone twice as many students were enrolled in the 12,500 madrassas than in the 124-odd universities. Given
Intolerance in the curriculum -by Kamila Hyat: There have been several shocking incidents over the past week or so that go only to highlight the kind of intolerance we are facing in our society and the manner in which this is spreading. Worst of all the
Courage to Differ: 10 Historical Facts that our Textbooks forgot to mention – by Abdul Majeed Abid: Editor’s Note: We are pleased to cross post this well-researched debunking of narratives, which in our opinion, have been disastrous for the country. More power to Abdul Majeed and his blog for writing this and we look forward to more of
An Islamic Predicament -by Eqbal Ahmed: Any historian of Islam would shudder at what passes in Pakistan for instruction in Islamic history. Some Years ago, I queried an M.A class in this subject at a major Pakistani university. None of the 25 odd students there
Is the youth in elite universities in Pakistan radical? – by Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa: Abstract This is a study of the socio-political attitudes amongst youth in elite universities in the three major cities in Pakistan: Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. The primary objective was to see whether better education and access to resources made
The ideology of thought control in Pakistan – By Maheen Usmani: First published in DAWN Denial is not just a river in Egypt. It has become something of a personality cult in Pakistan. Nowhere is this cognitive dissonance more visible than amongst the educated who refuse to accept facts and
Children of Zia – by Nabiha Meher: In elite academic institutions, we often make a knee-jerk and erroneous assumption that we are not responsible for the intolerance that now permeates our land. It is easy to blame the non-English speaking public sector and madrassas. We like
HEC and the Constitution – by Asad Jamal: Note by Sikandar Mehdi It is surprising that someone in the media has reported the facts about Higher Education Commission (HEC) rather than the “science fiction” that has been presented by the news retailers. Dr. Atta ur Rehman probably
An agenda for Pakhtuns in Pakistan – by Baryal Utmanzai: Pakhtun Leadership (both politicians and civil society) should stand with any one who helps them achieve for Pakhtunkhwa a complete and unadulterated regional autonomy. Without such an autonomy, Pakhtuns are doomed to social, cultural and economic slavery. Centralized State
Think ahead – Save the future! by Pakeezah Saadat: A better future is what we all aim for. It can only be obtained with the help of education for everyone regardless of anyone’s social/financial status in a society. Education can spark up the minds of our 60% youth-based
Saudi Arabia: Fueling religious persecution and Takfiri extremism – by Nina Shea: Source December 7, 2010 Last Sunday, a December 2009 cable that was cited by the New York Times but has not yet been posted by Wikileaks says that Saudi donors remain the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups such
Analysis of relief and donations related to Pakistan floods 2010 – by Anas Abbas: Donations and contributions so far: World Bank: popularly known as the Israeli sponsored conspiracy in Pakistan said it had set up an aid fund at Pakistan’s request with initial pledges of $80 million. United States of America: Remember (According
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa revises curriculum to teach peace – by Iqbal Khattak: Published in Central Asia Online PESHAWAR – “Soft words” are replacing “strong words” as schools and colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa discard old textbooks that critics say promoted radicalism and violence. An effort is under way nationwide to modify school
Sun from the East- by Ali Irtiza: The Bangladeshi government has ordered mosques and libraries across the country to remove all books written by a controversial Islamic scholar. The chief of the government-funded Islamic Foundation told the BBC that the books by Syed Abul Ala Maududi
Issues With Our Education – By Pakeezah Saadat: Etymologically, the word education means educare, which means to ‘bring up’ or ‘bring out’ the potential and the creativity of an individual. It mean to bring out the real creativeness from inside ‘you’ and to display in some form
Textbooks – Source confusion and extremism – by Junaid Qaiser: Pakistan’s poor education system and its bias curriculum that often incites intolerance and violence has increasingly become a matter of international concern. The government-mandated curriculum is a major concern for Western observers who say it encourages intolerance, anti democracy,
Beyond Madrasas: assessing the Links Between Education and Militancy in Pakistan – report by Rebecca Winthrop and Corinne Graf: Report published by the Brookings Institute: Overview: Increasing educational attainment is likely to reduce conflict risk, especially in countries like Pakistan that have very low levels of primary and secondary school enrollment. Education quality, relevance and content also have
Jihadi public schools? — by Ali K Chishti: The roots of problem lies in state policy of using violance as foreign policy tool, religious seminaries were corrupted by the bulks of petro dollar coming in the days of Soviet Afghan war as they are multiplied hundred times
Bhuttoism ought to be a part of school syllabus – by Ahsan Abbas Shah: A thought provoking article on inculcating the principles of Bhuttoism in Pakistan as a part of school syllabus.
Textbooks from the hate factory – by Haya Fatima Iqbal: KARACHI: The portrayal of religious minorities in textbooks prescribed by state-funded textbook boards is a grave indicator of what the country’s young people are being taught in terms of tolerance and respect for other religions. According to a 2007
Ideology of Pakistan – this is what we are teaching our kids.: Photo Comments from Ali K Chishti FB Profile Some selected Comments on this by Pakistani and Indian friends Vj Shiraz ; damn wth is ths :s Ideology is set of ideas not a science of ideas :s Rakshi Rath
Mice: Treatment of minorities in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan – by Nadeem Paracha: NFP asks if minorities will ever be treated well enough to not feel like misfits. — File photo Some days ago, while waiting in my car for a traffic signal to turn green, a young kid nonchalantly stuck a
The 1947-48 Kashmir War — by Ishtiaq Ahmed: Take up any book published in Pakistan on the division of the common assets of the Indian Royal Armed Forces and you will find Pakistan, justifiably, claiming that it was not given a fair share of the tanks, guns
Education and values – by Ayesha Siddiqa: The coexistence of various economic classes also meant greater tolerance for other differences, be it class, religion, caste or creed. –File Photo A year ago, some of my old classmates from Lahore’s Cathedral High School tracked me down through
Gojra and education: Zubeida Mustafa TALKING to a Dawn panel several years ago, Asghar Ali Engineer, head of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai, had commented that every communal riot in India that he had investigated was found to