Fewer Students
at Madrassahs
By Tahir Ikram
Islamabad
A World Bank-sponsored study has disclosed that
enrolment in Pakistani madrassahs, or Islamic
schools, that critics believe are misused by militants,
has been exaggerated by the media and a US 9/11
Report.
The working paper published this month on the
World Bank Research Website and criticizes local
and foreign media for exaggerated accounts of
the number of Islamic schools and their students
in Pakistan.
Madrassahs are often blamed for instilling religious
radicalism and inciting militancy and Pakistan's
President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally of the
United States in its war on terror, has promised
in the past to reform them.
Pakistani officials say very few madrassahs are
involved in activities that promote militancy,
but Musharraf urged his nation last Saturday to
stop militants trying to misuse the schools.
The study also expressed concern at the US 9/11
Commission Report into the attacks on US cities
in 2001, which said millions of families send
their children to religious schools in Pakistan.
"Striking, yet unsubstantiated claims such
as 'millions of families ... send their children
to religious schools' are of particular concern
given the emphasis on identifying and curbing
potential sources of extremism," it said.
The report (www.econ.worldbank.org/working_papers/41363/)
dispels general perceptions that enrolment was
on the rise: "We find no evidence of a dramatic
increase in madrassah enrolment in recent years."
It said figures reported by international newspapers
such as the Washington Post, saying there were
10 percent enrolment in madrassahs, and an estimate
by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group
of 33 percent were not correct.
"It is troubling that none of the reports
and articles reviewed based their analysis on
publicly available data or established statistical
methodologies," it said.
The research, conducted by Jishu Das of the World
Bank, Asim Ijaz Khawaja and Tristan Zajonc of
the Harvard University and Tahir Andrabil of Pomona
College, said, "Madrassahs account for less
than 1 percent of all enrolment in the country".
"The educational landscape in Pakistan has
changed substantially in the last decade,"
it said. "But this is due to an explosion
of private schools, an important fact that has
been left out of the debate on Pakistani education."
The report said it had worked out its figures
based on official surveys, 1998 census and its
own separate report on school education in the
Punjab province.
It said during the religious-based resistance
to the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets
in 1979 madrassahs became popular in the northwestern
and southwestern Pakistan.
Many of these students came from Afghanistan and
some of them joined hands to form the hardline
Islamic Taliban movement, which rose to power
in 1996 but was finally ousted by the United States
in late 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The report said the Pakistani districts where
madrassah enrolment was relatively high were in
the so-called "Pashtun belt" near the
Afghan border while in the rest of the country
enrolment was thinly but evenly distributed.
"Even in the districts that border Afghanistan
where madrassah enrolment is highest in the country,
it is less than 7.5 percent of all enrolled children,"
the report revealed
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