No one doubts that the key to impacting the hearts and minds of Pakistan's rising generation of leaders starts with educational reforms in the grade schools and high schools.
However, all U.S. assistance currently is going toward improvement of the secular schools and not to Pakistan's 20,000 madrassas, i.e. religious schools, reputed to be hotbeds of radicalism. The fact is, however, that efforts to turn madrassas away from radicalism are succeeding and need U.S. support.
Stories in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have emphasized the ties of madrassas to terrorism and their resistance to change. At the other end of the spectrum, the June issue of Foreign Policy magazine argued that the madrassas have less impact than previously thought and are largely irrelevant to the turmoil that is taking place. So which is it: a lost cause or a fool's errand?
Actually, it is neither. There is an untold side to this story. These schools are very influential, and reform of their curricula is not only possible, it's happening. The fact that it is needs the attention of the U.S. Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development as well as the international donor community. To prevent Pakistan's slide toward a failed nuclear state, broad educational enhancement of the madrassas will be essential.
Read Full Article »