Washington : Pakistan has been steadily reforming its education system and has also removed a number of offensive references from its textbooks, Pakistani Ambassador to United States Jalil Abbas Jilani said in his reply to a US report about objectionable material in Pakistani textbooks.
While reviewing the report ‘Teaching Intolerance in Pakistan’, Ambassador Jilani noted that the report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) was a follow-up to an earlier study.
The report concludes that majority of examples of religious intolerance found in 2011 textbooks had been removed, reports Dawn.
The ambassador added that he considers this an incremental but positive change.
‘Teaching intolerance in Pakistan’, was released at the National Press Club in Washington.
It urged Pakistan to reconsider its education policy and stop teaching material that creates hatred.
This kind of education closes all doors for a new generation of Pakistani Muslims to see a peaceful future with Hindus of India and it provides a rationale to treat Pakistani Hindus as outsiders.
The report claims that the textbooks portray non-Muslim citizens of Pakistan as sympathetic towards its perceived enemies: Pakistani Christians as Westerners or equal to British colonial oppressors and Pakistani Hindus as Indians.
Ambassador Jilani said education was a provincial subject in Pakistan and the report had acknowledged progress made in at least two provinces. (ANI)