A Study On Multiple Education Systems Causing Segregation And Intolerance In Pakistan’s Society

This thesis inspects the world-view of students from three major socio-economic classes in Pakistan studying in three different education systems i.e. thereligious seminaries (madrassas), the Urdu-medium institutions and the elitist English-medium institutions. The inequality of the educational system, as represented by thesethree different streams of education, is described in some detail. The curricula of thereligious seminaries, especially as it relates to the creation of intolerance, are described.The results of a questionnaire filled in by the students of these institutions of threedifferent educational streams is also presented especially as it refers to the students’ viewsabout giving equal rights to non-Muslim citizens of Pakistan as prelude to findingtolerance among these students towards religious minorities of Pakistan, women and otherstudents of different educational streams as a whole. This was done through first handsurveys, and interviews and focus group discussions among students and teachers ofdifferent education systems. Same questions targeting tolerance level of the students andfaculty were asked and then the data was analyzed to come up with a result showing thatthe students from the English-medium elitist institutions are relatively more tolerant of thereligious minorities than students of Urdu medium institutions and religious seminaries(madrassas). However, they are also more alienated from Pakistani society than otherstudents. Pakistani society is highly polarized without, however, being tolerant. Theimplications of this for pluralism and peaceful co-existence are briefly mentioned.