Rewriting the past : political imperatives and curricular reform in Pakistan

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, great attention has been paid by Western media to the role played by Pakistani madrasa in promoting radical Islam, while little has been written on the role played by Pakistani government schools in spreading an exclusionary identity and an extremist interpretation of religion. This is somewhat surprising, as the number of pupils attending government schools is much greater than that of pupils attending madrasa, and many elements point towards the fact that the Islamisation of state-school textbooks has had far-reaching negative effects. The paper explores the political context in which curricular reforms have taken place, the policy goals pursued by the Executive in Islamising the educational system and its consequences in terms of social cohesion and regional cooperation.