Highlights
- 2.5 million children study in 30,000 madrassas
- Rs2 billion to be spent to modernise madrassas
- No terrorists organisation exists in Pakistan
Dubai: A few months after dismantling the extremist networks in the country, Pakistan has announced to take control of 30,000 madrassas (religious schools) in a bid to bring them into mainstream system of education.
Pakistan will initially spend Rs2 billion (Dh52.4million) to bring these madrassas into mainstream education system and Rs1 billion annually to operate them.
“The government and support institutions have decided to mainstream all these madrassas. Their curriculum will include contemporary subjects and they will be run under the Ministry of Education,” said Major General Asif Ghafoor, Director General of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Monday.
Major General Ghafoor talked about wide-ranging subjects, including action against the proscribed extremists groups and the recent India-Pakistan tension.
About Pakistan's education system, he said that 25 million children in Pakistan are currently out of schools while 2.5 million are studying at the 30,000 madrassas, which offer only a religious education. He said only 100 madrassas were found to be offering education to radicalize children and pushed them towards extremism.
Modernizing madrasa education is a thorny issue in Pakistan, a deeply conservative Muslim nation where religious schools are often blamed for radicalization of youngsters, but are the only education available to millions of poor children who cannot afford to attend regular schools.
Pakistan's new government, facing pressure from global powers to act against militant groups carrying out attacks in India and Afghanistan, has vowed major reforms and Prime Minister Imran Khan has promised he would will no longer tolerate such outfits operating on its territory.
"I can now say with confidence that there is no terrorist organisation in Pakistan anymore. We have proscribed violent extremist organisations and we have been working to curb terrorism in Pakistan
Critics of the madrasa education system say children who attend such schools, where they spend most of the day memorizing the holy Quran, are often ill-equipped for the modern world and some madrasas act as breeding grounds for militant outfits.
"An Islamic education will continue to be provided but there will be no hate speech," Major General Ghafoor said.
He said that religious schools will come under the purview of the ministry of educations and incorporate other subjects into their syllabus.
DG ISPR said that Pakistan would pay for the madrasas by diverting cash to education from the cost of anti-terrorism security operations, which are less necessary because militant attacks have sharply declined in recent years.
"The benefit will be that when children grow and leave these institutions they will have the same career opportunities that those coming from a private school have," he said.
Madrassas offer eight years of studies in a Dars-i-Nizami. Then two more years to give them the title of Mufti. But when these children come out of these madrassas, there are hardly any job opportunities for them.
“That is why, we are trying to mainstream madrassas to give these children opportunities to become doctors and engineers just like the children studying in mainstream schools,” he said.
According to Major General Ghafoor, the Army Chief had already engaged with religious scholars from all sects on this and they all agreed that it was necessary to mainstream madrassas and contemporary education must be given.
No terrorists groups in Pakistan
"I can now say with confidence that there is no terrorist organisation in Pakistan anymore. We have proscribed violent extremist organisations and we have been working to curb terrorism in Pakistan.
"The state was busy conducting kinetic operations and every law enforcement agency was busy in that, which is why we were not able to strategise against these [banned] organisations the way we are doing today."
He said that after kinetic operations were completed, Pakistan decided to take action against proscribed organisations and formulated the National Action Plan.
“Today we can say with conviction, evidence and logic that there is no organised terrorist infrastructure present in Pakistan.”
Major General Ghafoor further said Pakistan had intelligence sharing cooperation with 70 countries. “We paid the price for this. Over 81,000 Pakistanis including personnel of the armed forces were either martyred or injured.”
“The overall impact on the economy of Pakistan amounted to over $300 billion in losses.”
(With inputs by agencies)
