Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what (a) education and (b) interfaith initiatives her Department has funded in Pakistan to promote tolerance and interfaith harmony in schools in each year for which information is available, and how much her Department has spent on each such initiative.

Since 2011, DFID has benefited 10 million primary and nearly 6 million secondary students in Pakistan. Inclusion and respect for minorities forms an integral part of provincial and national education programmes. Our work to promote tolerance and interfaith harmony includes: training nearly 100,000 teachers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab in equity and inclusion; funding the Alif Ailaan education campaign which focusses on religious minorities; and engaging with education civil society organisations to champion issues of inclusion and raise these with government. Through the KP Education Support Programme (KESP) and the Punjab Education Support Programme II (PESP II), DFID has also provided technical assistance to provincial governments to revise the school curriculum and remove discriminatory content from textbooks. Since 2011, DFID has invested £678.7m in education in Pakistan, including £122.7m in 2017/18.