Perspective of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Female Madrassa Teachers towards Minorities

Afsheen Naz*

 

Abstract

Religious Minorities in Pakistan are continuously facing discrimination in almost all fields of life over the period of times by the Majority. With other many factors, education system of Pakistan is highlighted as one of the most influential factor responsible for stemming the bigotry behaviours in Muslims. However, madrasas education system and particularly female madrassa teachers remained least studied area in this regard. Thus, current paper while focusing on Khyber Pukhtunkhwa’s female madrassa teachers comes up with analyzing their perspectives towards the people of other religions living in their vicinity. The method of Focus Group Discussion was adopted for the analysis purpose and perspectives of thirty three female madrassa teachers were gathered in three parallel FGD sessions. According to the findings of the paper, female madrassa teachers are not highly biased towards non-Muslims. Although some prejudicial behaviours had been found but it is also important to note that such behaviours are not of extreme in their nature. However, these bigotry behaviours can be minimized with the inclusion of lessons of comparative religions in the madrassa curricula, which is missing.

Introduction

 

Pakistani society comprises people belonging to different cultures, religions and ethnic backgrounds. Ninety five percent of the population is Muslim while the other five percent belongs to other religions, — these are known as religious minorities.
Irrespective of religious identity every person living in Pakistan has equal constitutional rights. Conversely, the dominating majority at times takes advantage of religious minority groups, violating the law and resulting in disregarding the rights of minorities. Several studies have been carried out, for instance Robina Siagol’s “The Boundaries of Consciousness… (1994)” and Ahmad Salim’s “Pluralism and Diversity in Asia…(2008)” , to find out what is behind such behavior and suggest a large number of social, economic, cultural, political and historical factors. At the heart of all these factors lies the education system which serves as a means to reinforce the discriminatory attitudes of the majority (Nayyar and Saleem 2003).
In Pakistan, there are three major types of educational systems, (i) public schools (ii) private schools and (iii) the madrassa education system. The public education system has extensively been studied to find out the ways in which education promotes biases and discriminating attitudes based on religious identities – through textbooks and teaching practices. However, far less attention is paid to understand the ways in which madrassa education plays its role in shaping the attitudes of students towards religious diversity. Within the madrassa education, there is a dearth of literature on the dynamics of female madrassas particularly related to the role that textbooks and teachers play in influencing the behaviour of female students towards various religious identities. This paper, in this context, is an attempt to explore the attitudes of female madrassa teachers towards the followers of different minority religions in the broad sense as well as within the madrassa education system. The paper is based on SDPI’s recent report on education and religious discrimination, titled, “Connecting the Dots: Education and Religious Discrimination in Pakistan, a Study of Public Schools and Madrassas” . The report explored prejudices against people of other religions in both educational systems; public schools and madrassas. Despite being a comprehensive study on the subject, this report did not provide any insights into the attitudes of female madrassa teachers and instead focused on male madrassa teachers only. This paper is based on qualitative data collected from Khyber Pakhtoonkwa (KPK) province through focus group discussions of female madrassa teachers. The analysis of the data provides a mix of responses showing the coexistence of biases alongside tolerant attitudes towards religious diversity.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows; section 02 represents context of the study, section 03 objectives, section 04-methodology and data set, section 5-analysis and section 6 represents conclusion.

Context of the Study

 

Madrassa Education

Madrassa: A Madrassa is known to be an Islamic religious institution where religion and different religious practices are taught. However, these religious institutions vary in their nature and school of thought hence forming various types. In Pakistan there are three major types of religious institutions ;

1. Quranic Schools: These are schools where only the Quran is taught.
2. Mosques Schools: These are schools where both Quranic and secular subjects are taught.
3. Madrassas: In these schools, generally, Islamic learning takes place. Madrassas work to inculcate religious knowledge in students to prepare religious scholars.

Evolution of Madrassas in the Subcontinent and Pakistan: Uzma Anzar (2003) in her study presented the ideological shift in the teachings of madrassas of the Indian subcontinent. Historically, in the subcontinent, the madrassas went through a radical shift in ideology during the British rule. The purpose of such a formation was to protect and preserve Islamic teachings to counter the domination of the British English schooling system.  In 1867, the first madrassa, the Deoband school of thought was established in the subcontinent. At the time of the creation of Pakistan, madrassas were not in monolithic number, as a total of 189 madrassas were reported to exist at that time. The number of madrassas did not grow rapidly as less than 2,000 madrassas were known to exist in Pakistan in 1979. A mushroom growth of madrassas in Pakistan began after 1980s. According to a report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP 2002), the number of madrassas increased drastically and reached at 28,000 in 2002. Out of these, only 8,000 madrassas are officially registered (Ibid.).
Suba Chandran, in his study “Madrassas in Pakistan” (2003) , highlighted the facts behind such rapid growth of madrassas in the country. According to his study, such growth in the number of madrassas was commonly attributed to General Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamization policies. Nonetheless, according to him, there were other internal and external factors which contributed to the rising number of madrassas in Pakistan. Chandran, looks at this issue by dividing madrassas geographically into two categories, (i) KPK & Balochistan and (ii) Punjab & Sindh.
The involvement of Pakistan in the Afghanistan war in 1980 is considered to have largely contributed to the growth of madrassas KPK and Baluchistan. The heavy influx of Afghan war refugees in Pakistan, according to Chandran, was used as a war tool by the Government of Pakistan, supported by the Government of United States of America. Madrassas in KPK and Balochistan were used to prepare these Afghan migrants to fight as mujahedin. The financial support for this purpose facilitated the establishment of a large number of new madrassas.
The Khomeini Revolution in Iran in 1980, according to Chandran, changed the numbers and nature of madrassas situated in Punjab and Sindh. The revolution resulted in splitting up the whole Muslim Umma into Sunni and Shia sects. Consequently, madrassas were found to be involved in sectarian extremism in both provinces.

Structure/Composition of Madrassa Education in Pakistan: In Pakistan, five types of madrassas function on the lines of five major religious sects having their own curricula: Tanzim-ul-Madaras (Barelvi), Wafaq-ul-Madaras (Deobandi), Wafaq-ul-Madaras (Shia), Wafaq-ul-Madaras (Ahle Hadith) and Rabita-ul-Madaris (Jamaat-e-Islami). However, all these five boards come under an educational board “Ittehad Tanzeemul Madaris”. , The contents of the curricula being used in these madaris are, reportedly, centuries old with no major changes over the period of time. The overall objective of all madrassa curricula is to nurture and prepare students to become religious scholars.

Central Boards of Madrassas in Pakistan

 

Name	Sub-Sect	Place	Date Established
WafaqulMadaris	Deobandi	Multan	1959
TanzimulMadaris	Barelvi	Lahore	1960
Rabta-tul-Madaris-al-Islamia	Jamaat-i-Islami	Lahore	1983
Wafq-ul-Madaris-al-Salafia	Ahl-i-Hadith	Faislabad	1955
WafaqulMadans (Shia) Pakistan	Shia	Lahore	1995

Source: “madrassas: religion, poverty and the potential for violence in Pakistan” Tariq Rahman
Under all religious sects there are a total 12,448 deeni madaris in Pakistan, of which 363 (3%) are in the public sector while 12,085 (97%) are in the private sector according to Pakistan Education Statistics 2007-08. Whilst, the total enrollment in the Deeni Madaris is 1.603 million of which 0.454 million (3%) is in public sector, whereas, 1.558 million (97%) is in private sector. However out of total enrollment the male students are higher (62%) as compared to female students (38%). Whereas, a total 55,680 teachers are recruited in these madaris of which 77% are male while 23% are female teachers.
Madrassa education is mostly provided free of any cost in Pakistan. However, there are certain internal and external sources that bear the administrative, boarding and lodging cost of madrassas. Mumtaz Ahmad in his study “Madrassa Education in Pakistan and Bangladesh” identifies many of the internal and external funding sources for madrassas, for instance, trusts, endowments, charitable donations, and zakat contributions are some of the internal funding sources, besides, money from emigrant workers and wealthier and international Muslim non-governmental organizations (NGOs) come under external funding sources.
 Madrassa education is far different than the public school education in Pakistan because of the difference of curricula being used in both systems as emphasis of the madrassa curricula is on Islamic teachings while secular education is of low importance. Over the period of time many reforms have taken place in madrassas. The madrassa reform of the passing of “Deeni Madaris (Voluntary Registration and Regulation) Ordinance 2002” in General Parvez Musharaf’s regime is one of the current reforms (Chandran 2003). Under this ordinance, the permission of the concerned districts is obligatory for setting up any new madrassa. Also madrassas were forbidden to preach sectarianism and militancy and hatred; however the ordinance was allowed to be implemented at a larger scale by madrassa administrative bodies.

Religious Minorities in Pakistan

 

Pakistan is an Islamic state in which 95 percent of the population comprises of Muslims, (seventy five percent of Sunni and twenty percent Shia). The total number of people belonging to other religions in Pakistan is five percent of the entire population.  These are Christians, Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Bahais, Ahmadis and other castes.
Although the constitution of Pakistan ensures rights to non-Muslims living in Pakistan, these rights are rarely recognized. This lack of realization results in discriminatory behavior against the people of other religions over a period of time. Recently, the incident of the murder of Federal Minister of Minorities, Mr. Shahbaz Bhatti, in the backdrop of his remarks about the blasphemy law, is an example of the continuation of such prejudice. The Constitution of Pakistan clearly states the rights of religious minority groups in several articles as shown below:

The rights of religious minorities in Constitution of Pakistan 1973 (selected articles)

Article 20: Freedom to Profess Religion and to Manage Religious Institutions

20. Freedom to profess religion and to manage religious institutions. – Subject to law, public order and morality;

(a) Every citizen shall have the right to profess, practice and propagate his religion; and
(b) Every religious denomination and every sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.

Article 22: Safeguards as to educational institutions in respect of religion, etc;

(1) No person attending any educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction, or take part in any religious ceremony, or attend religious worship, if such instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other than his own……

Unfortunately, although the constitution gives many rights to minority groups to freely practice one’s own belief there are also a number of articles that create discrimination between religious minorities and the majority. Below are some examples of such articles which are equally applicable to all people living in Pakistan with no exception to religious minorities. For instance;

Article 31: Islamic Way of Life

(1) Steps shall be taken to enable the Muslims of Pakistan, individually and collectively, to order their lives in accordance with the fundamental principles and basic concepts of Islam and to provide facilities whereby they may be enabled to understand the meaning of life according to the Holy Quran and Sunnah.
(2) The state shall endeavour, as respects the Muslims of Pakistan;
(a) To make the teaching of the Holy Quran and Islamiat compulsory, to encourage and facilitate the learning of Arabic language and to secure correct and exact printing and publishing of the Holy Quran;
(b) To promote unity and the observance of the Islamic moral standards; and
(c) To secure the proper organisation of zakat, [ushr,] auqaf and mosques”

Female Madrassa Teachers and Minorities

 

According to latest available data source of “Pakistan education statistics 2007-08” , there are a total of 55,680 teachers in madrassas, of which 23% are female teachers educating 0.604 million female students. One point is noteworthy at this stage that in most Pakistani madrassas female teachers are recruited for female students.
Several studies have highlighted the curricula and pedagogical methods being used in public schools in creating and promoting discriminatory behaviors against religious minorities. However, the attitudes of madrassa teachers, particularly female teachers remains the least studied area. Given the centrality of female madrassa teachers in influencing the attitudes of female madrassa students, this paper has focused on the attitudes and behaviors of female madrassa teachers towards non-Muslim students in Pakistan.
 

Objectives of the Study

This study is aimed at finding out:

1. The attitudes of female madrassa teachers towards non-Muslims in everyday life and social interaction with them;
2. The justifications provided by the teachers for their attitudes towards non-Muslims; and
3. To identify ways of addressing the possible biased attitudes of the teachers.

 

Methodology and Data Set

In order to have in-depth views of the teachers on the topic, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted. This method has been chosen for the current paper, keeping in view its profound effectiveness in stimulating the participants to reveal their opinions, attitudes and behaviors towards non-Muslims and motivations behind these. To grasp the actual point of view of the teachers that can best fit into the objectives of the study, check lists and discussion guidelines were also developed for the moderators. The responses of the teachers were recorded in audio-recorders and notes were taken. The audio records were later transcribed into English.
A total of three FGDs were conducted at a local female madrassa in Abbotabad in the Khyber Pakhtoon Khawa (KPK) province. Thirty three female madrassas teachers participated in these FGD sessions. The participants were of different ages and had different years of teaching experience in the madrassas located in three districts- Abbottabad, Mansehra and Haripur of KPK.

Analysis

 

In order to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the data, systematically, the responses of the teachers were divided into various themes. Keeping in view the objectives of the current paper, the data related to the following themes is analysed;

1. Importance of madrassa education
2. Knowledge about other religions and existence of religious minorities
3. Interaction with minorities
4. Equality of rights
5. Reaction towards insulting behavior

Importance of Madrassa Education

When teachers were asked about the importance of madrassa education, almost all of them were of the view that madrassa education plays a key role in keeping Muslims on the right path. According to their view, madrassa education helps students to act upon the teachings of Islam which ultimately turns their lifestyle into an Islamic way of living. Most of the participants were of the view that;

“Madrassa education is very important as knowledge about religion and religious practices increases”,

“The religion (Islam) is taught in-depth in madrassas. Moreover, what is also taught in the madrassas is how to act upon what is taught”

Despite highlighting the factors behind the importance of madraassa education, a group of teachers further added a concept that relates to the character building of the students. This group of teachers was of the view that “through madrassa education, one can differentiate between good and bad”. Although this group indirectly highlighted this fact, the majority of the participants directly highlighted the aspect of madrassa education and characterized their students as less inclined towards any crime. Many of the teachers, for example, said; “a madrassa student will never be inclined towards crime no matter how many hard times she faced.”
Teachers were also probed about the comparison and importance of secular education. In their responses the importance of acquiring both types of education was highlighted. Adding to their response teachers said that madrassa education alone does not provide a financially attractive livelihood to students hence keeping them and their families away from economic progress. Teachers were of the view that “combining both education systems into a comprehensive one will make a good student”.
Moreover, female teachers differentiated the provision of both kinds of education for girls and boys. They said, “To have secular education is more important for male students as they have to play the role of the main earner for the whole family”.
However, despite the fact that teachers were favouring acquiring modern education for economic gains, they preferred madrassa education as for them it provided an ethical way of living, an Islamic way of life;

“Priority should be given to Islamic teachings while contemporary knowledge has a secondary place”

Apart from highlighting the facts behind the importance of madrassa education, when teachers were further probed about the reasons behind getting admission into madrassas, almost all of the teachers linked admissions to an attractive environment of madrassas. For example they said;

“The environment of madrassas fascinates students. It’s the environment, the books, and the syllabus that attracts them”,

“There isn’t any strictness in our Madrassas rather students are inspired to learn. We provide a picture of Islamic teachings, in such a positive way, that students themselves start studying in a good manner”

Knowledge about Other Religion and Existence of Religious Minorities

When teachers were asked about other religions and the existence of religious minorities, the majority of them expressed the fact that they were aware of their existence. All of the teachers linked their knowledge of the presence of religions other than Islam with the teachings of the Holy Quran and said that “other religions, before Islam, are also cited in the Holy Quran”.
Nonetheless, teachers were not very aware of the practices of other religions. The reason behind such unawareness was also inquired during the discussion session under this theme. The contents of textbooks were said to be the reason as teachers themselves were not taught about other religions. Following the same curricula and textbooks, they are still not teaching their students about other religions. When teachers were asked about the reasons for not transferring such information to the students, more than half of the participants expressed their fear that such information could distract students from the teachings of Islam. One teacher, for example, said;

“Children’s minds and views will mix up if they read about different religions”

Another teacher, for example, said;

“There shouldn’t be such courses because children will develop conflicting views.”

However, when asked in-depth, most of the teachers acknowledged the importance of knowing about other religions to avoid any misconception about them. However, sometimes, the underlying objective also appeared to be to establish Islam as superior to other religions. One representative of such views said;

“Taqabl-e-Adian (study of comparative religions) should be read out to get the full picture of what we studied and why other religions are different from us, and why we feel ourselves better as compared to other religions and faiths”

Some teachers felt it is beneficial for students to learn about other religions but only after they reached a mature age. One teacher said;

“Children can be taught about other religions once they become mature, this will not change the thoughts of the children about their own religion”

Talking about the mention of other religions in the Holy Quran, one teacher said;

“there are many verses that point out other religions but we only translate the verses and do not explain it because being a verse of the Quran we cannot overstate the word of God.”

Mostly the teachers themselves had not studied comparative religions, so they could not teach their students about them. Thus teachers had very limited knowledge about other religions and their practices. Most of the teachers were acquainted with Hinduism, Christianity and Judaism only. On the other hand, out of these three, they were familiar with the rituals of two religions i.e. Hinduism and Christianity. Sources of their familiarization with these two religions were also identified during the focus group discussion. TV channels were said to be a source of information about Hinduism. The respondents linked the source of information of the Christian religion with Sayings of the Quran and their day to day interaction with Christians.
Moreover, when teachers were probed about the presence of people of other religions in vicinity, most of the participants named people of Christian religion. Only one of the respondents said that “there had been a Hindu family in our community.”
Despite the fact that respondents openly accepted the existence and presence of other religions, they disliked their rituals. A group of respondents in this context also gave an example of “burning of dead bodies in Hindu religion”. While elaborating the example respondents stated that “these rituals are against Islam that’s why we hate them”.

Interaction with Minorities

While gathering the views of the teachers under this theme certain observations came to light, for instance, none of the teachers had the experience of teaching a student from other religions other than Islam in their class or madrassa. However, the majority of the teachers had people of other religions in their environments and had the experience of interacting with them as well. About half of the teachers showed abhorrence and intolerance of other religions while about half were favoring interaction with people belonging to other religions.
Teachers, who disliked interacting with non-Muslims, were of the view that non Muslims are infidels so any type of social interaction would be unbearable. When the type of aversion was enquired about, such responses came up; “we do not like to shake hands, eat food, and enter into contract marriages with non-Muslims”. Moreover, the respondents showed a clear hatred of Hindus and said that it worked both ways; “We hate Hindus because they hate Muslims”.
All of the respondents, while sharing their views regarding the issue of marriage with non-Muslims showed reluctance. However, referring to the Quranic knowledge of the issue, the participants differentiated infidels from ‘People of Book’. These included Jews, Sabians and Christians. The respondents were of the view that “marriages with ‘people of the book’ are allowed”. Nonetheless, the respondents further elaborated that “only Muslim men can marry non-Muslim women”.

 

The respondents, who were in favour of interaction with religious minorities, shared many of their experiences of social interaction with people from other religions like inviting them to their ceremonies and attending theirs as well;

“We attend their festivals and also invite them to ours, like marriage ceremonies etc.”

However, four of the respondents said that they invited them to their ceremonies but did not attend theirs. They shared their experience;

 

“We invited non-Muslims to our brother’s marriage and their girls came to attend as well. But when they invited us to one of their marriage ceremonies, we did not go but our elders went”

Under this theme, the teachers also talked about economic interaction with people of other religions. Almost all of the teachers were in favor of having economic relationships and linked it with economic prosperity for both Muslims and non-Muslims, “business relationships can be built with non-Muslims”.
However when teachers were asked whether living with non-Muslims can affect Muslims’ values and beliefs the majority of the respondents said that Quranic knowledge could not be affected by the influence of other religions. The majority of them were of the view that; “our belief is much stronger and it cannot be affected by people of others religions”. However, a small group of respondents showed clear concern while living with non-Muslims. They shared their experience while living in an area where a Christian hospital was situated; paramedical staff of that hospital was spreading literature about Christianity and many Muslims felt insecurity while going to that hospital.

Equality of Rights                                

Responding to a question about whether or not non-Muslims should have equal rights to Muslims, everyone responded positively. Considering non-Muslims as citizens of Pakistan, more than half of the respondents equated the rights of religious minorities with their own. One teacher for example said;

“Being citizens of Pakistan, they should have equal rights”

Respondents were of the view that all the followers of other religions should have full economic and social rights. In teachers’ responses there was a clear sense of acceptance of the provision of social rights to the religious minorities living in Pakistan was also observed during the discussion around this theme. Almost all the participants expressed views such as;

“All non-Muslims living in Pakistan have equal social rights and they are enjoying their rights as well”.

Elaborating on views on the provision of economic rights most of the teachers said that if Muslims can go abroad to non-Islamic countries and earn a livelihood then why non-Muslims cannot enjoy equal opportunities while living in Pakistan. More than half of the respondents had views such as;

“If we [Muslims] can have opportunities to go in other countries for livelihood then why can’t they”.

In addition, with regard to non-Muslims freely performing their rituals most teachers felt they should be allowed to do so. One teacher, for instance, said;

“People of other religions in our community celebrate their ceremonies like matrimonial ceremonies with full liberty”.

As shown in the previous section, a group of teachers showed pejorative behaviour towards the performance of rituals by non-Muslims. However, majority of the teachers, as shown in this section, not only recognized the rights of non-Muslims but also believed in their liberty to perform their rituals. This contradictory behaviour of the teachers reflects the plurality of the views amongst teachers towards non-Muslims, respecting their rights and freedom to perform their rituals.

Theme 5: Reaction towards Insulting Behavior

 

Teachers were asked that if a non-Muslim insults a Muslim or vice versa, what would be their reaction. All the participants responded in a non-prejudicial manner. All the participants were of the view that justice would be done irrespective of a person’s religious identity. They also highlighted that a common approach of listening to the arguments from both sides would be applicable to solve the problem;

“If Muslim and non-Muslims are engaged in a conflict, we would first consult both the parties and then reach a decision irrespective of the belief and faith of the conflicting parties”

Despite having certain discriminatory behaviors against people of other religions, as discussed in preceding sections, the responses of the teachers to this question were surprisingly very encouraging. In their responses, teachers not only emphasized the need for knowing the real issue at hand, they also seemed to favour the righteous one. Further elaborating their views on this, teachers said;

“Being Muslims we should keep good relations with all people of other religions. We should not hurt anyone without any reason”

Such attitudes reflect tolerance and respect towards non-Muslims.
 

Conclusion

The paper has analyzed the responses of female madrassa teachers to the questions related to their attitudes towards religious diversity in the country. As discussed, responses of the teachers are diverse and sometimes contradictory. Respect and tolerance co-exist with bigotry and discrimination. Acquiring a madrassa education appeared to be very important as has been made clear through the teachers’ responses. They felt that a madrassa education builds a strong character and forms a strong base for learning about Islam. They nonetheless also emphasized the need to combine secular education with madrassa education to improve prospects for the livelihoods of the students.
Teachers were aware of different religions such as Hinduism, Christianity and Judaism and were also familiar with some of the religious practices of their followers. Some of the teachers also appeared to be pejorative towards the religious practices of non-Muslims. They however highlighted that their textbooks contain little information about other religions and they are as such not taught comparative religions. The television appeared to be a major source of information about other religions and the practices of their followers.
Almost half of the respondents opposed having social interaction with people of other religions such as shaking hands, sharing food, contracting marriages etc. Despite these discriminatory attitudes, teachers appeared to favour business relationships with non-Muslims. They also suggested giving non-Muslims equal social and economic rights. The example of Muslim immigrants settling in western countries was often cited while supporting the provision of equal rights to non-Muslims.
According to the findings of the paper, female madrassa teachers are not highly biased towards non-Muslims. Although some prejudices were found in teachers behaviors they were not of extreme in their nature. Teachers came to know about rituals of non-Muslims through teachings of Quran, electronic media and actions of those non-Muslims living in their surroundings and not through contents of course being taught at madrassas. Thus, teachers’ negative behavior towards religious minorities was mostly influenced by electronic media. Absence of material about comparative religions may one of the reasons which allow them to nourish the biased attitude against people of other religions. Perhaps the inclusion of lessons on comparative religions in curricula and textbooks, in an unbiased way, can minimize this stance.

Annexure

Table 1.   Deeni Madaris Institutions, Teachers and Enrolment by Wafaqs, Province and Gender

Wafaqs/	Province/	Institutions				Enrolment			Teacher
Tanzeem/ Rabita	Region	Male	Female	Mixed	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
	Punjab	152	74	152	378	35,706	22,511	58,217	1,459	572	2,031
	Sindh	43	10	114	167	17,925	10,213	28,138	821	217	1,038
	NWFP	70	20	46	136	14,563	5,551	20,114	623	68	691
Rabita-tul-MadarisIslamia	Balochistan AJK	14 10	2 9	28 117	44 136	3,227 7,230	1,887 8,064	5,114 15,294	202 285	22 253	224 538
	Gilgit-Bultistan	7	-	8	15	3,018	356	3,374	103	-	103
	FATA	12	6	23	41	2,478	1,357	3,835	228	45	273
	ICT	3	2	1	6	478	970	1,448	19	35	54
	Total	311	123	489	923	84,625	50,909	135,534	3,740	1,212	4,952
	Punjab	580	302	626	1,508	140,384	94,467	234,851	6,109	2,525	8,634
	Sindh	143	43	329	515	71,643	46,852	118,495	3,153	1,002	4,155
	NWFP	530	165	306	1,001	118,781	41,935	160,716	5,096	691	5,787
Wafaq-ul-Madaris*	Balochistan AJK	73 30	7 19	97 86	177 135	18,163 6,524	6,767 6,550	24,930 13,074	1,011 412	65 131	1,076 543
	Gilgit-Bultistan	11	-	10	21	3,016	1,322	4,338	107	10	117
	FATA	31	22	78	131	8,835	6,349	15,184	462	186	648
	ICT	14	6	9	29	2,833	4,426	7,259	194	249	443
	Total	1,412	564	1,541	3,517	370,179	208,668	578,847	16,544	4,859	21,403

	Punjab	488	278	590	1,356	116,825	73,234	190,059	4,661	1,834	6,495
	Sindh	129	36	287	452	47,466	26,928	74,394	2,111	422	2,533
	NWFP	132	71	155	358	29,982	15,878	45,860	1,213	238	1,451
Tanzeem-ul-MadarisAhleSunat	Balochistan AJK	32 20	3 28	72 214	107 262	7,742 8,905	3,830 11,189	11,572 20,094	386 426	89 241	475 667
Pakistan *	Gilgit-Bultistan	7	2	6	15	1,437	339	1,776	59	-	59
	FATA	38	23	70	131	7,602	5,630	13,232	433	133	566
	ICT	4	5	7	16	804	763	1,567	41	41	82
	Total	850	446	1,401	2,697	220,763	137,791	358,554	9,330	2,998	12,328
	Punjab	115	49	134	298	20,534	11,147	31,681	869	251	1,120
	Sindh	41	17	116	174	16,351	9,908	26,259	716	227	943
	NWFP	89	30	77	196	18,139	9,755	27,894	759	157	916
	Balochistan	10	3	31	44	3,054	1,866	4,920	172	7	179
Other bodies	AJK	33	29	120	182	5,889	6,265	12,154	287	143	430
	Gilgit-Bultistan	5	-	2	7	623	25	648	27	-	27
	FATA	11	6	27	44	2,183	1,607	3,790	138	35	173
	ICT	-	1	-	1	-	20	20	8	-	8
	Total	304	135	507	946	66,773	40,593	107,366	2,976	820	3,796
	Punjab	565	293	722	1,580	97,027	64,216	161,243	3,515	1,322	4,837
	Sindh	98	27	312	437	35,483	22,429	57,912	1,470	373	1,843
	NWFP	299	164	325	788	55,585	30,133	85,718	2,086	507	2,593
	Balochistan	66	12	186	264	11,274	7,714	18,988	706	43	749
Not Affiliated	AJK	58	65	263	386	13,479	14,890	28,369	639	168	807

	Gilgit-Bultistan	10	3	9	22	2,352	834	3,186	94	-	94
	FATA	32	11	67	110	5,068	4,144	9,212	237	48	285
	ICT	3	-	6	9	473	214	687	30	3	33
	Total	1,131	575	1,890	3,596	220,741	144,574	365,315	8,777	2,464	11,241
	Punjab	118	76	124	318	13,887	9,060	22,947	572	181	753
	Sindh	39	10	68	117	7,211	4,255	11,466	382	54	436
	NWFP	77	26	51	154	10,582	4,323	14,905	387	58	445
	Balochistan	19	1	27	47	1,766	1,307	3,073	134	1	135
Not Reported	AJK	7	10	62	79	1,708	2,083	3,791	84	27	111
	Gilgit-Bultistan	4	1	7	12	415	126	541	30	3	33
	FATA	6	3	32	41	989	628	1,617	41	6	47
	ICT	-	-	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Total	270	127	372	769	36,558	21,782	58,340	1,630	330	1,960
	Punjab	2,018	1,072	2,348	5,438	424,363	274,635	698,998	17,185	6,685	23,870
	Sindh	493	143	1,226	1,862	196,079	120,585	316,664	8,653	2,295	10,948
Total	Balochistan AJK	214 158	28 160	441 862	683 1,180	45,226 43,735	23,371 49,041	68,597 92,776	2,611 2,133	227 963	2,838 3,096
	FATA	130	71	297	498	27,155	19,715	46,870	1,539	453	1,992
	ICT	24	14	24	62	4,588	6,393	10,981	292	328	620
	Gilgit-Bultistan	44	6	42	92	10,861	3,002	13,863	420	13	433

Table 1.1.   Grand Total

Wafaqs/ Tanzeem/ Rabita	Province/ Region	Institutions				Enrolment			Teacher
		Male	Female	Mixed	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
Grand Total	Pakistan	4,278	1,970	6,200	12,448	999,639	604,317	1,603,956	42,997	12,683	55,680

Source table 1 and 1.1: Ministry of Education, Pakistan Education Statistics, 2007-08.

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