When children grow up hearing that their neighbors and minority peers are existential threats, empathy dies early.

For generations, Pakistan’s school system has done far more than teach kids how to read, write, and pass exams. It operates as a quiet, methodical machinery—one that molds exactly how young Pakistanis view religion, nationalism, history, and, most crucially, those they are taught to see as “the enemy.”

Ideally, a classroom should spark curiosity. It should teach a child how to question the world. But in Pakistan, critics point out a grim reality: the public-school system serves as an assembly line for ideological conformity rather than independent inquiry.

This is not a new debate, but it just took on a sharp, urgent relevance. A major 2025 report by IMPACT-se titled Review of Pakistani Textbooks—authored by Ratnadeep Chakraborty and edited by Madeleine Ferris—blew the lid off the current curriculum.

After investigating 86 government-approved textbooks across Punjab, Sindh, and the Federal Directorate, the study exposed a deeply unsettling reality. Historical distortion, religious exclusivism, and aggressive nationalistic messaging are systematically baked into everything from social studies and Urdu to geography and Islamic education.

The report highlights how India is routinely painted as an existential, permanent threat. Meanwhile, discussions regarding Jews and Israel rely heavily on hostile stereotypes, classical antisemitic tropes, and highly selective historical narratives.

Furthermore, the concept of jihad is frequently framed not as an internal spiritual struggle, but as a noble, militaristic obligation, with virtually zero discussion about the human cost of violence or extremism.

A National Identity Built on Exclusion

This is no sudden shift. It is the continuation of a dark pattern researchers have warned about for decades. Way back in 2003, a seminal study titled The Subtle Subversion revealed that Pakistan’s textbooks were actively promoting intolerance and glorifying militarism.

More recently, a report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Quality Education vs. Fanatic Literacy, reached the exact same conclusion: discriminatory narratives and exclusionary ideas about citizenship are deeply embedded in both provincial and federal classrooms.

At its core, this is a symptom of Pakistan’s ongoing identity crisis. Ever since the partition of British India in 1947, successive governments have tried to manufacture national unity through religion-centered nationalism. This project peaked in the 1980s under the military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq, whose sweeping “Islamization” policies hardwired religious ideology into state institutions—especially the schools.

The fallout of those choices is what children are breathing in today. According to the IMPACT-se report, multiple textbooks explicitly teach that Pakistan was created “exclusively as a free state for Muslims.” While wrapped in the flag of patriotism, this language effectively strips religious minorities of their stakes in the country. It implies that Hindus, Christians, and Shia communities exist completely outside the central national story.

The textbooks pay lip service to equality, but the daily reality for these minority communities is one of severe social and institutional marginalization—a truth completely erased from the classroom.

The portrayal of history is equally black-and-white. Complex historical events are flattened into a simplistic narrative: Muslims are always the victims; Hindus are always the aggressors. The “Two-Nation Theory”—the political idea that Indian Muslims required a separate homeland—is taught as infallible divine truth rather than a debated historical theory.

When children grow up hearing that their neighbors and minority peers are existential threats, empathy dies early. Education built on fear yields an adult population ruled by suspicion.

The Slow Death of Independent Thought

The crisis isn’t just what these kids are learning; it’s how they are being taught. Pakistan’s education system rewards rote memorization over actual analysis. Students get top marks for parroting official state talking points, not for questioning them.

The CSJ report highlights an even more aggressive trend: religious material has spilled far beyond the boundaries of Islamic Studies (Islamiyat). It now shows up in science, social studies, and language textbooks.

Consequently, non-Muslim students are routinely subjected to compulsory Islamic teachings inside mainstream classes. This directly violates Articles 20 and 22 of Pakistan’s own Constitution, which explicitly guarantee religious freedom and protection from forced religious instruction.

The Structural Breakdown

Pakistan is already battling a massive educational emergency. Millions of children are entirely out of school, literacy rates are stagnant, and public spending on education hovers around a dismal two percent of GDP. But the deeper tragedy is what happens to the children who do make it inside the classroom.

When you feed students a diet of simplified history, rigid dogmas, and state-sanctioned hostility, you produce adults completely unequipped for democratic participation or informed citizenship. A society that outlaws questions eventually hollows out its own intellect.

Is Real Reform Possible?

There have been piecemeal attempts to fix the system. The CSJ notes that some provincial boards have tried to introduce more inclusive content. Sindh’s curriculum, for example, features a bit more material on diversity and peaceful coexistence. Reformers continuously advocate for human rights education, peace studies, and comparative religion to be taught from an early age.

Yet, these efforts are drop-in-the-bucket fixes against a massive, rigid structure. The state still treats national identity as something incredibly fragile—something that will collapse if it isn’t guarded by strict ideological conformity.

The profound irony is that this fearful approach completely betrays the vision of Pakistan’s own founder. In his famous speech on August 11, 1947, Muhammad Ali Jinnah explicitly declared that religion should have nothing to do with the business of the state, and that all citizens would be equal. Today, that speech is rolled out for ceremonial occasions but kept far away from civic textbooks. Instead, patriotism remains fiercely shackled to religious conformity.

Ultimately, Pakistan’s textbook crisis is a mirror of the society it is choosing to build. Schools can either raise a generation capable of critical thought, empathy, and healthy debate, or they can continue to manufacture individuals trained only to repeat inherited grievances. A curriculum rooted in fear might enforce short-term obedience, but it will never build intellectual confidence or regional stability.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not reflect Milli Chronicle’s point-of-view.

Education is never neutral, but the persistent distortions in Pakistan’s textbooks have long-term consequences.

Education is often regarded as the foundation of a nation’s future. But in Pakistan, state-approved textbooks continue to reveal a troubling pattern: the blending of religion, nationalism, and selective history into a narrative that risks deepening social divides and shaping generations in ways that undermine pluralism and peace.

A new report by IMPACT-se, in partnership with the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation, provides an in-depth review of 86 textbooks from Punjab, Sindh, and the Federal Directorate, exposing how the country’s curriculum falls short of international standards of tolerance and respect.

Religion as the Core of Identity

At the heart of the curriculum lies the portrayal of Pakistan as an Islamic republic created “exclusively as a free state for Muslims.” This framing, repeated across grades and subjects, sidelines the multi-religious and multi-ethnic reality of the country.

While textbooks claim that minorities live “happily according to their beliefs,” the lived reality of Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, and Ahmadis suggests otherwise. The curriculum’s heavy Islamization extends beyond religious studies into secular subjects such as Urdu, General Knowledge, and even Mathematics, where exercises are framed around Islamic expressions or prayer times.

The emphasis on Islam as the sole foundation of national identity feeds a narrow worldview. It conditions young Pakistanis to equate patriotism with religiosity, leaving little space for pluralism or the idea of citizenship beyond faith.

A Skewed Portrayal of Democracy and Dictatorship

Textbooks often praise democracy as a system but simultaneously undermine it by stressing inefficiency, high costs, and delays. A Civics textbook from Punjab goes so far as to call democracy a “burden on the people.”

In contrast, authoritarian rule, particularly military dictatorships, is described in neutral or even positive terms. Some texts astonishingly highlight Adolf Hitler as an example of a leader who restored “German pride,” while omitting the genocide and horrors of Nazism.

Such selective glorification is not accidental; it reflects Pakistan’s own history of repeated military coups. By downplaying the dangers of authoritarianism and exaggerating its “efficiency,” the curriculum normalizes undemocratic interventions in governance and erodes the value of democratic accountability.

India as the Perpetual Adversary

Few themes dominate Pakistani textbooks more consistently than the portrayal of India. From early grades, students are taught to see India not as a neighbor but as a historic and permanent adversary. The Kashmir conflict is presented solely as Indian aggression, while agreements, cooperation, or shared cultural histories are absent.

Hinduism occasionally receives respectful treatment—described in one Ethics textbook as a religion of “love, tolerance, and peace”—but this is overshadowed by the negative portrayal of Hindus during Partition and the depiction of India as an existential threat to Pakistan’s survival.

The textbooks also describe India’s revocation of Kashmir’s Article 370 as a “black day,” without presenting the legal or political complexities.

This constant framing entrenches a siege mentality, ensuring that reconciliation remains distant and hostility is passed from one generation to the next.

Jews, Israel, and the Erasure of History

The report highlights that Jews are systematically excluded from comparative religion lessons and are instead framed in narratives of betrayal during early Islamic history. Passages accuse Jewish tribes of Medina of “conspiracies,” while some texts repeat medieval tropes about Jews being responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. There is no mention of the Holocaust, even in references to Hitler’s Germany.

Israel, meanwhile, is depicted solely through the lens of conflict. Textbooks describe Pakistan as supporting Muslims “on every front in their war against Israel,” reinforcing an uncompromising position.

Even the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks are absent from accounts of the Gaza war, with blame placed entirely on Israel for humanitarian suffering.

This selective erasure and demonization foster intolerance and deny students an opportunity to understand Jewish history or the complexity of the Middle East.

Women Between Progress and Patriarchy

Gender representation remains deeply conflicted. On one hand, textbooks celebrate figures like Fatima Jinnah and Benazir Bhutto, and highlight women in professions such as engineering or aviation.

On the other, traditional gender roles are reinforced, with young girls portrayed as naturally suited for sewing and domestic tasks. Imagery consistently depicts women in hijabs, linking dignity and morality to modest dress codes.

This duality sends mixed messages to young learners: women can succeed, but only within culturally sanctioned boundaries.

Foreign Policy Through a Religious Lens

Pakistan’s foreign policy is consistently framed as an extension of Islamic solidarity. The country’s leadership in founding the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is described as part of a divine mission to unite Muslims. Its nuclear capability is celebrated not only as strategic defense but as a symbolic victory for the Islamic world.

The United Nations is portrayed as biased against Muslims, while Pakistan’s ties with China are praised uncritically. By framing diplomacy as a moral struggle between Muslims and “the West,” the textbooks leave little space for nuanced understanding of global politics.

Why This Matters

Education is never neutral, but the persistent distortions in Pakistan’s textbooks have long-term consequences. By glorifying authoritarianism, demonizing neighbors and minorities, and embedding religion into every subject, Pakistan risks raising generations conditioned to mistrust pluralism and embrace hostility.

For an international audience, the findings raise a crucial question: how can a nuclear-armed state grappling with extremism prepare its youth for peace when its schools normalize intolerance?

The report underscores a fundamental truth: curricula are not just about teaching facts—they shape values, worldviews, and future policies. Unless Pakistan reforms its educational system to embrace inclusivity, critical thinking, and historical honesty, its classrooms will remain breeding grounds for division rather than bridges to peace.