‘Syllabus should be reviewed for interfaith harmony’

KASUR: Speakers at a seminar on Thursday said that educational policy and syllabus should be reviewed to create harmony and peace among different religions.

Addressing a seminar titled “Right to Education without Prejudice and Discrimination”, organised by the Center for Social Justice at Kasur’s Municipal Committee Hall, experts including Waqas A Khan, Sunil Malik, Peter Jacob and Ansar Javed said that there were some words and phrases in textbooks, which created prejudice among the people of different religions and so they should be eliminated.

“The federal and provincial governments should focus on the education of minorities because they too are citizens of Pakistan,” they said while adding that teachers and religious scholars were the main pillars of the society and they should treat the children of other religions equally.

Sunil Malik said that awareness programmes were being organised in different cities to create awareness among the minorities with respect to education. He added that a majority of Christian community members in Pakistan were living below the poverty line and that was why their children were less educated.

He also demanded the government to introduce a special budget for the minorities’ education.

Waqas A Khan, at the occasion, said that the provincial governments had failed to achieve the target of one hundred per cent literacy rate.

Meanwhile, Peter Jacob said the government should provide education that is free from religious boundaries. He added that the government had made agreements with international communities in the field of education, which should be implemented in letter and spirit.