Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) ensure that schools in Pakistan, supported by the Department for International Development, do not use textbooks with content that stigmatises religious minorities, and (2) encourage provincial governments in Pakistan to work with religious minority groups to remove such content.

Inclusion and respect for minority communities forms an integral part of our provincial and national education programmes in Pakistan. Through the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (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. Other work to promote tolerance and interfaith harmony includes: training nearly 100,000 teachers in 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.