Minority students to have their own religious textbooks.

ISLAMABAD -- In a major development in the country's history related to religious minorities, the National Curriculum Council (NCC) has issued no-objection certificates (NOCs) for publishing religious books for students of seven minority groups enrolled in educational institutions supervised by the federal government.

After the NOCs, the National Book Foundation (NBF) will publish the books. The NCC issued the NOCs for publishing books on Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, Bahai, Zoroastrianism, Kalasha and Buddhism.

The country is going to celebrate 50 years of its constitution, which was approved in 1973. The constitution guarantees full educational rights to minority students, but there were no proper books on their religions, instead they used to read books on ethics. The NCC issued six separate NOCs for publishing books for them.

One of the NOCs issued on March 3, available with Dawn, stated that consequent upon completion of the textbooks reviewed process and on the recommendations of the review committee NOC is issued.

'NOC/approval is hereby issued for publishing of the textbooks by National Book Foundation Islamabad for use in the schools within the Islamabad Capital Territory and the ones under administrative control of federal government ministries/organisation across Pakistan subject to following conditions.'

Curriculum Council issues NOCs for publishing books on religions of seven minority groups

It said the textbooks covered all the standard learning outcome in accordance with the national curriculum for religious education 2022.

All the corrections pointed out by the reviewers have been incorporated in the textbooks.

'The NOC approval is valid till the new curriculum is approved. However, NBF will improve, update and revise any part or the whole textbooks based on the feedback from the field during implementation and submit improved version for the NOC/approval.'

It said textbooks were free from all biases related to cultural, ethnic and linguistic differences of the people of Pakistan.

'In the textbooks, there is nothing against any religion, Pakistan and organs of the state. All the references of the holy books...