Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the meeting of Lord Alton of Liverpool and Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne with the Minister of State at the Department for International Development, Rory Stewart MP, about the role of school textbooks and the school curriculum in Pakistan in describing non-Muslims, what progress has been made in promoting inclusive educational approaches in that country.

DFID’s education programmes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces continue to support provincial governments in the ongoing process to update and revise textbooks. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab lower secondary textbooks are now the focus. Through the Ilm Two programme DFID is directly supporting the production of additional reading materials that specifically focus on religious tolerance and inclusion. DFID is also engaged with Federal Government consultations on a new draft National Curriculum which is in its early stages. The Federal Government has also agreed minimum standards for educational quality which were adopted by provinces this year. These standards set the quality criteria for learners, curriculum, textbooks, teachers and assessment and form the basis for the current textbook reform.