PEACE EDUCATION IN PAKISTANZahid Shahab Ahmed

THE NEED

1. Divided on ethnic, religious and sectarian lines

2. The growing problem of violent extremism

3. Extremists in the mainstream politics

4. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan

5. ISIS recruitment

6. Radicalization in universities

THE SECTARIAN DIMENSION1. Sectarian violence

2. Spread of the hate material in all forms, including on the social media

3. Blaming the outsiders

EXTREMIST HEROES

METHODOLOGY

Funded by the United States Institute of Peace during 2015-16.

The data was collected during 2015-16 by the lead author with the help of three research associates. The nine randomly selected initiatives were implemented in public and private schools as well as privately run madrassas in Pakistan, these initiatives were running in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the Punjab and Sindh (three in each province).

The implementing organizations were: in KP, the Paiman Alumni Trust (KP chapter), the Peace Education and Development (PEAD), and the Foundation and the Swat Youth Front (SYF); in Punjab, the Grammar School Rawalpindi (GSR), the Paiman Alumni Trust (Punjab chapter), and the Jamia Naeemia seminary; and in Sindh, an anonymous project funded by an INGO that preferred not be named in this research, the Charter for Compassion (CfC), and the Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research (PILER).

26 interviews and nearly 300 surveys

OUTPUTS

- USIP special report

- book chapter

- A paper under review with Conflict, Security and Development

LANGUAGE AROUND CVE

1. Imported terminology

2. Local partners have no input in the development of such terms

3. Local NGOs replace and use positive terminologies, such as social cohesion, interfaith harmony, as well as project titles in local languages: Umeed-e-Jawan (Hope of Youth), and Azm-e-Jawan (Youth commitment)

PVE THROUGH EDUCATION

1. Many interventions have not targeted the right group; therefore, a little or no impact of such interventions. [Converting the converted]

2. Primarily focused on madaris and public schools where children of mostly the poor class go.

3. Less focus on the out of school youth and the youth from the middle and upper classes.

UNDERSTANDING THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

Madaris are Islamic learning institutions, aimed at building a generation of Imams, Qaris and Ulama. The world madrasa (plural: madaris) means ‘centre of learning in Arabic’.

The number of students in a madrasa can range from 50 up to a few hundreds.

There exist various kinds of madaris, the ones that only focus on religious education and others that provide education of secular subjects alongside Islamic education.

The students of the latter model study secular subjects and appear in examinations as private students.

At a madrasa, a student learns how to read, memorise and recite the Qur’an. The madaris in Pakistan are administered under different boards and issue certificates of various levels that are recognised by the government. The graduates are called hafiz-ul-Qur’an (those who memorise the Arabic text of Qur’an) and Qaris (those who can recite the Qur’an with proper Arabic pronunciation). Finally, the ones with high level training in Islamic philosophy are known as Ulama (Religious Scholar).

SYSTEM …

Pakistan is home to three parallel education systems, for example, other than madaris there are public and private schools.

All three systems cater to the needs of different classes: 1) the top class private schools apply a high quality curriculum based on the UK’s education

model and the Cambridge regulated international GCE programs are expansive – average monthly fee above PKR20,000 (US$190) – and largely home to the upper-class students;

2) public schools provide average quality education at subsidized costs, e.g. average monthly fee is between PKR100-500 (US$1-5) and mostly the middle class children go there; and

3) madaris provide free education, boarding and lodging and by virtue of that madaris have become schools for the poor. Most of the parents of children attending madaris are very poor and cannot even afford a very low fee of public schools.

PVE THROUGH EDUCATION IN MADARIS

1. Contents on ‘Islam and peace/non-violence’ have been prepared to localise/legitimise the knowledge on CVE/PVE: A madrasa teacher said that most of his students believe that by learning Islam, they would go to heaven.

2. Acceptance of madrasa qualified trainers/teachers: In a project that focused on Imams, more than two-third participants did not view the trainers as knowledgeable

and qualified.

Other teachers of madaris found some trainers wearing Western clothes to be culturally insensitive.

3. Claiming friendships with people of other sects but mostly that is not true

4. Teachers of madaris are interested in university degrees and English language training

5. Interest in secular education, the mainstreaming of madaris, respectable jobs for madrasa graduates

6. Donor-driven short-term interventions.

7. Interest in teaching scientific subjects in madaris

PVE-E MADARIS …

1. Madrasa teachers do expect regular contact with the implementing organizations.

2. Focus on male madaris in urban areas, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

3. Working on their terms – the case of Oxfam Novib

4. Limited contents and reach of projects – the case of Jamia Naeemia

5. Donors don’t have much choice in working with madaris

6. Trying to cover too much in trainings, for example the issues of blasphemy, polio vaccination, family planning, and Islamic concepts and practices of conflict resolution.

7. Cautious or conflict avoidance approach. The head of Jamia Naeemia said, “We do not want to create a controversy by inviting people from other schools of thoughts”.

8. Trainers with first time exposure to madaris found it difficult to teach there. One trainer said, “the intellectual level of the participants was medium”.

CHALLENGES

1. Continuous negative portrayal of madaris as breeding grounds of terrorism. The blame is to be shared by the society which isolates the graduates of madaris, leading to a sense of alienation.

2. The appeal of madaris lies not only in the free of cost education, but also in their approaches. Most madarisgo beyond theory and involve students in practical activities, such as fundraising, demonstrations, lectures and sermons. This practical training give madasa students a sense of purpose. [PVE-E does not focus on practical application of the knowledge]

3. The problem lies in the lack of social acceptance of the students from madaris. This is evident in NGOs not being able to create pathways of interaction among students of madaris and other education institutions in Pakistan.

4. Divided on sectarian lines, madaris cannot easily address the issue of sectarianism

5. Focusing on interventions in the conflict hotspots is not easy

6. Attacks of moderate voices from madaris

7. Access to female madaris is very difficult, if not impossible

“Out of the 90 percent students in madaris, there are 55 percent who do not want to return to their homes for various reasons, and the remainder are staying for the food and shelter they get free of cost in madaris or because their parents are unable to afford their formal school education. Of the 10 percent who are there for religious teaching, only one percent possess the intellectual capacity to grasp the religious teachings”.

Anonymous madrasa teacher

FINDINGS

- Very different approaches and contents

- Well established NGOs did well

- Teachers were not well trained mostly

- Peace education material wasn’t comprehensive

- Short-term, donor driven approaches

- There are a few specialist organizations but everyone is now working on peace education

CONCLUSIONThe analysis shows a need to improve the links between peace education policy, research and action (both political and public) in Pakistan so that the education system is optimally utilised to counter radicalisation, extremism and violence.

Although these independent initiatives provide actionable-evidence and share lessons for expansion, the present research found that almost all initiatives had a short-term approach with no link to education policy and scalability that could be achieved through advocacy for mainstreaming peace education to counter violent extremism in Pakistan.

Two main factors contribute to the lack of sustainability and scalability of the independent peace education initiatives implemented by NGOs and INGOs in Pakistan.

1. First, local and international organisations work in silos and often owing to their competing or divergent interests they overlook the gaps and missing links of their initiatives with education policy and peace related research in Pakistan.

2. Second, a collective voice and advocacy forum for peace education NGOs that could advocate for the system-wide implementation of contextualised peace education initiatives across provinces and regions in the country is largely missing.

There is no network to provide the much-needed interface between government officials, public representatives, academics and civil society to share lessons and facilitate debate for a more responsive education policy and system to promote peace and counter violent extremism.

The research proposes that there is a need to improve synergies between peace education policy, indigenous evidence (research) and collective action (practice) of all stakeholders to deal with the challenges of religious intolerance, stereotyping, bias and extremist narratives in the country.

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