---
title: "Exclusive: British government carrying out &#8220;spot checks&#8221; for radicalisation in Pakistani classrooms"
date: "2013-11-27T14:01:50+00:00"
modified: "2013-11-27T14:01:50+00:00"
url: "https://rationalists.org.uk/2013/11/27/exclusive-british-government-carrying-out-spot-checks-for-radicalisation-in-pakistani-classrooms/"
post_id: 6042
categories: ["Uncategorised"]
---

# Exclusive: British government carrying out “spot checks” for radicalisation in Pakistani classrooms

*This report is a preview from the Winter 2013 issue of New Humanist magazine. You can [subscribe here](/supportus).*

The British government is carrying out spot-checks in Pakistani classrooms to ensure pupils are not being radicalised through its £203m education programme. State-sanctioned textbooks in Pakistan, which have been in use for decades, are notorious for containing “hate material” towards India and minorities. Several reports, including one from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and another from the National Commission for Justice and Peace, have highlighted how Pakistan’s minorities are described in negative terms.

References to Christians are inaccurate or offensive, while Hindus are depicted as enemies of Islam and their culture and society as cruel and unjust. The 139-page USCIRF study, from November 2011, warned that “negative attitudes often resist change and can factor into the disintegration of the social fabric of communities, discrimination, and even sectarian violence”.

But the Department for International Development (DFID) said spot-checks and audits were in place to ensure its scheme in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) did not directly or indirectly support such views. Lesson plans were also being monitored as a further safeguard.

A statement issued to *New Humanist* said: “Spot checks and audits are in place to make sure our money reaches those who need it, secures value for money, and delivers real results, as well as to ensure that a good quality education is being provided in classrooms. We are supporting the development of lessons plans for both primary and secondary classes and monitoring their use.”

The ambitious and expensive programme, running from 2011 to 2016, is intended to promote prosperity and stability in one of the poorest provinces in the country. Its literacy rate is below the national average and its development has been interrupted by the conflict in Afghanistan, which it shares a border with, and emboldened militant activity. In recent years the province has experienced significant levels of violence, including the shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai and a suicide bombing of a church that left 85 people dead.

Education has become a controversial area in KP. Earlier this year Pakistani activists criticised politicians for saying they would put Qur’anic passages about jihad back into the curriculum following their removal in 2008, leading to concerns that such a change would promote militancy in a region already destabilised by the phenomenon. The provincial minister for elementary and secondary education, Atif Khan, caused further alarm when he said there would be no interference from foreign organisations or NGOs and that Islamic teachings would form the basis of education in the province.

He told *New Humanist* that concerns about jihad on the curriculum were minor issues when compared with the challenge of improving access to and quality of education in KP. Speaking by telephone from Pakistan he said: “People are using the jihad issue for political point scoring. If we make too many changes people say we are fundamentalist, if we don’t make any we are liberals.”

The provincial government, led by Imran Khan’s Movement for Justice party, will no longer implement these changes although it can not be ruled out that individual politicians will press for them to be brought in later.

In its statement to *New Humanist* DFID did not say what concerns it had about radicalisation in KP. Instead it said it was working closely with the provincial government so that children had “access to good quality schooling and better life opportunities”. DFID has committed up to £350m between 2013 and 2018 to “transforming education” in the Punjab.

An independent report, published in October 2012, said DFID had “no track record on delivering programmes on the scale that is now contemplated”. The same report, from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, also said DFID’s team in Pakistan faced “a difficult operating environment” and that access to KP was limited to day trips to Peshawar with extensive security support.

DFID is currently the second largest bilateral donor to Pakistan after the United States and the fourth largest overall after the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.