Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent steps her Department has taken to review and monitor the content of textbooks in states throughout Pakistan for material which is biased and discriminatory towards religious minorities.

DFID’s technical assistance teams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab regularly report on efforts to reduce the gender gaps and biases with respect to religion, regions, race, and ethnicity in school textbooks. In 2017 DFID carried out an internal review of official provincial government primary textbooks in KP and Punjab and of books used in non-government primary schools supported by DFID in Sindh, which did not find content inciting religious hatred or promoting intolerance. We continue to monitor progress and lobby provincial governments at senior levels to prioritise inclusion and religious tolerance.