Pakistan Christian TV - National Education Policy 2009 infringes religious freedom of non- Muslims students

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National Education Policy 2009 infringes religious freedom of non- Muslims students - NCJP by Peter Jacob
November 05, 2009

The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) has expressed its strong reservation on the new Education Policy which failed in their opinion, to address the existing religious biases in the curriculum and imposed Islamic Studies directly and indirectly on about one million non- Muslim students in the country.

The office bearers of NCJP Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha, the Chairperson and Peter Jacob, the Executive Secretary have demanded from the government to make provisions for non-Muslim student to receive religious lessons according to their faith background in lieu of Islamiat through a joint statement.

‘If government thinks public education is not possible without a compulsory subject of Islamic Studies and Arabic, then we are forced to demand religious education for Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Parsi, etc. in their respective religions. We are also concerned about availability of religious text in abundance and in daily use this might need special measures to avoid abuse of blasphemy laws at schools and colleges.

The subject of Ethics proposed in the policy, is hardly a choice as alternative for non-Muslim students. Taking this option (Ethics) involves several difficulties including; non-availability of text books and the syllabus that has chapters on different religions yet only presenting the Islamic point of view. Moreover the non-Muslim students risk their grades and isolation from the rest of the class

We note with regret that Ministry of Education has totally ignored civil society concerns about religious and gender biases while framing the policy, especially its chapter 4 dealing with religious education in public schools seeks to enhance the scope of religious teaching without a proper evaluation of the existing syllabi.

We urge the Cabinet to review the proposed National Education Policy to check this infringement of freedom of religion guaranteed in Articles 20 and 22 of the Constitution of Pakistan. Article 22 specifically bars any religious education other than the student’s own. We also appeal to the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take a Suo Moto action on this matter’ the statement said.

Peter Jacob
Executive Secretary
The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP)
Pakistan

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