Single National Curriculum, Pakistan

The Pakistani textbooks controversy refers to claimed inaccuracies and historical denialism. The inaccuracies and myths promote religious intolerance and Indophobia and lead to calls for curriculum reform. According to the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan's school textbooks have systematically inculcated anti-Indian discrimination through historical omissions and deliberate misinformation since the 1970s.

The revisionism can be traced back to the rule of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who instituted a program of Islamization of the country. His 1979 education policy stated that the highest priority would be given to the revision of the curricula with a view of reorganizing the entire content around Islamic thought and giving education an ideological orientation so that Islamic ideology permeates the thinking of the younger generation to help them with the necessary conviction and ability to transform society according to Islamic tenets. In March 2016, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani from the upper house of the Pakistani Parliament addressed that since then, Pakistani textbooks have taught children more about the benefits of dictatorship than a democracy.

According to Dr. Naazir Mahmood, textbooks on journalism in Pakistan fail to cover the subjects of critical thinking, knowledge development, freedom of speech, gender studies, minority rights, human rights, developmental studies, democracy and constitutionalism. He suggests that instead of engaging in critical inquiry, Pakistani journalists end up parroting jingoistic, insular and narrow-minded narratives. Such journalists end up condoning or even promoting hate speech and sectarian violence toward religious minorities in Pakistan.

Context

In the first decade after Pakistan gained independence following the partition of India, Pakistan "considered its history to be a part of larger India, a common history, a joint history, and in fact Indian textbooks were in use in the syllabus in Pakistan." The government under Ayub Khan, however, wished to rewrite the history of Pakistan to exclude any reference to India and tasked the historians within Pakistan with manufacturing a nationalist narrative of a "separate" history that erased the Indian past. According to Hussain Haqqani, only officially published textbooks have been used in Pakistani schools and colleges since the era of Ayub Khan. These textbooks are used by the Pakistani government to create a standard narrative of Pakistan's history. Elizabeth A. Cole of the George Mason University School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution noted that Pakistani textbooks eliminate the country's Hindu and Buddhist past while referring to Muslims as a monolithic entity and focusing solely on the advent of Islam in the Indian subcontinent. During the rule of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, a "program of Islamization" of the country including the textbooks started. General Zia's 1979 education policy stated that "the highest priority would be given to the revision of the curricula with a view to reorganizing the entire content around Islamic thought and giving education an ideological orientation so that Islamic ideology permeates the thinking of the younger generation and helps them with the necessary conviction and ability to refashion society according to Islamic tenets". Recently, the contributions of Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Patel and Bose to the Indian independence movement have been omitted from Pakistani textbooks.

According to the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, since the 1970s Pakistan's school textbooks have systematically inculcated prejudice towards India and Hindus through historical revisionism.

Undermining of democratic values and constitutionalism

In March 2016, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani from the upper house of the Pakistani Parliament acknowledged that in the curriculum that was created under Zia's ruling, Pakistani textbooks still teach children about twelve benefits of dictatorship compared with just eight benefits of democracy.

Textbooks of religious education

In Pakistan, since the 1980s Islamiyat (Islam) is a compulsory subject at every educational level. Since 2018 Punjab province of Pakistan provided for Nazrah Quran (recitation of the Arabic text) to be taught from class I to V and reading translation of the Quran for classes VI-XII has been made mandatory, as per the Punjab Compulsory Teaching of the Holy Quran Act 2018.

In Punjab, a board representing the Islamic clergy known as the ''Muttahida Ulema Board'' already had the right to censor educational content; a Curriculum and Textbook Board (Amendment) Bill passed unanimously in 2020 which gave them additional rights to pre-screen any Islamic-related content in all Pakistani textbooks including those of Islamiat, Pakistan Studies, History, and Urdu Literature. In June 2020, another Governor's decree made passing of Quranic examination mandatory before receiving any University degree. According to Baela Raza Jamil, June 2020 legislative changes in Punjab Pakistan would compromise education based on freedom of inquiry and critical thinking in Pakistan. Huma Yusuf expressed surprise over misplaced priorities in Pakistani education wherein right-wing-washing of educational content is being prioritized over education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and critical thinking.

A voluntary body of educators, Working Group on Inclusive Education (WGIE), expressed its serious reservations about legislative measures in Punjab Pakistan compromising diversity and religious freedom.

According to a study by Muhammad Azeem Ashraf at Hunan University in Changsha, most teaching faculty in Pakistan believe that since Pakistan is an Islamic country, Islam has to be associated with nationalism. As such, Islam can only be introduced through religious education, which practically includes only Sunni Islam, and leads to the exclusion of minority religious thought from education, Pakistani citizenship, and human rights.

Textbooks of journalism in Pakistan

According to Dr Naazir Mahmood, textbooks on journalism in Pakistan fail to cover critical thinking, knowledge development, freedom of speech, gender studies, minority rights, human rights, democracy, and constitutionalism, as well as health education and other developmental studies. Mahmood says that, as a result, Pakistani journalists promote rather than question jingoistic, insular, narrow minded narratives, condoning and even promoting hate speech and sectarianism against religious minorities in Pakistan.

Criticism

In a 1995 paper published in the ''International Journal of Middle East Studies'', that focused on a newly invented subject of 'Pakistan studies', historian Ayesha Jalal notes a large extent of creative imagination in the creation of the state historiography, to carve out a national past based on hegemonic values. She remarked on Pakistan's history textbooks as being an example of the relationship between power and bigotry, in regards to the rigid state-controlled education system and curriculum which promoted revisionist history to satisfy its national ideology.

Authors vary widely in establishing the history of the Pakistani nation-state. Jalal deems this an example of narrative confusion resulting from tensions between the ideology of Muslim nationalism and the geographical limitations of the Pakistani nation-state. While some pan-Islamic ideologists locate the time-frame to correspond with the birth of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula and choose to ignore the spatial and temporal distance between the two non-concerted happenings, others opt for a sub-continental approach. ''An Introduction to Pakistan Studies'', (a popular text-book which is compulsory reading for first and second year college students studying for an F.A degree in history), claims that Pakistan is an Islamic State which is governed by ''Allah'' and is not a mere geographical entity but an ideology reflecting a unique civilization and culture that was borne of an effort to resist the imposition of Hindu Nationalism on Muslim masses and ward the unethical practices of Hinduism. Another textbook – ''A Text Book of Pakistan Studies'' claims that Pakistan "came to be established for the first time when the Arabs under Muhammad bin Qasim occupied Sindh and Multan'" and thereafter equates the Indian Subcontinent with Pakistan, whose greatest ruler is subsequently deemed to be Aurangzeb. Anti-Indian sentiments, coupled with anti-Hindu prejudices compound these issues. K. Ali's two volume history designed for B.A. students, even whilst tracing the pre-history of the 'Indo-Pakistan' subcontinent to the Paleolithic and discussing the Dravidian peopless and the Aryans, consistently refers to the post-1947 frontiers of Pakistan. At the end, he supports the existence of the nation-state, based on a religious ideology, in light of a need to immunize themselves from (alleged) Hindu hostility displayed to the Muslims during the independence movement, and the fact that the subcontinent was ruled by ''Muslims'' for centuries.

Scholars like Jameel Jalibi question the validity of any national history that mentions Pakistan's "pre-Islamic past". Jalal notes Ali's assertions to establish reactive religious bigotry as a basis of Pakistan's statehood. Secularism, Communism et al. are painted as evil threats to the state and Jalal notes a textbook wherein Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was described as a drunkard, characterless, and an un-Islami-minded man, courtesy of his sociopolitical leanings towards communism ''but'' Zia ul Hak and his dictatorial martial regime is extensively praised for his abidance by Islamic ideologies. In light of the Balochs, Sindhis et al. being increasingly vocal about their regional culture, one textbook identifies regionalism as a "very dangerous episode". It goes on to mention that efforts to advance 'regional dialects and lores' was an attack on the very foundations of the state and that Punjabism shall never be allowed to replace the Islamic culture, because its patron figures had waged wars against Islamic rulers. Textbooks frequently denote Urdu