Religious Tolerance , Gender Equality and Bellicose Attitudes : A Comparative Study of Three Educational Systems in Pakistan

The study explores differences between Pakistani students from three types of schools regarding religious tolerance, views on gender equality, and bellicose attitudes towards India. A questionnaire was filled in by 285 girls and 300 boys, 15−17 years of age (mean age identical for both = 15.8, SD = 0.8), from three different types of schools (Urdu Medium, English Medium, and Madrassas). Significant differences were found: students attending English Medium schools differed most from other students. They scored highest on religious tolerance and gender equality, and lowest on bellicose attitudes towards India, while students attending Madrassas scored lowest on gender equality. Especially girls from the Madrassas scored lower than all other students on religious tolerance, and highest on bellicose attitudes. Madrassa students experienced themselves as victims of religious intolerance more often than others. Religious tolerance and positive attitudes towards gender equality were highly correlated.


Introduction
Pakistan is passing through a crucial phase in its history.Religious intolerance is quite rampant (Murphy, 2013).Gender related crimes have placed Pakistan as the third most dangerous country for women in the world (Thomson Reuters Foundation, 2011).On the external front, Pakistan has been and still is engaged in many conflicts with India, which has become a pretext for increasing the defence budget (Iqbal, 2014).This military fund is a major obstacle for allocating financial resources on human development areas such as education.As a result, education has become a neglected field, which has been used for serving the state's objectives (Khan, 2013).

Three Different Educational Systems in Pakistan
The educational system in Pakistan is divided into many different types of schools.The major educational system includes Urdu medium or public schools, English medium or private schools, and Madrassas or religious schools.Besides those school types, there are Urdu and English philanthropic schools catering for the poors.Also, there is a wide variety of low fee private schools which have mixed medium (Urdu and English) of instruction.Moreover, there are many government schools that have been adopted by foundations.In Pakistan, the Federal government is responsible for making educational policies while implementation lies with the provincial governments (Durrani & Dunne, 2010).

The Urdu Medium or Public School System
A large number of public schools use Urdu language as a medium of instruction.However, there are many schools in the public sectors where the medium of instruction is English.Notwithstanding, the government-run school are mostly known as Urdu medium schools.It attracts mostly the lower-middle class due to its affordable education facilities.A large number of teachers also come from a middle class background.The textbooks used for teaching in these schools are provided by provincial text book boards.Rote learning and punishment are two central educational elements of this school system, which hampers the development of analytical ability of the students (Rehman, 2004).

The English Medium or Private School System
The private schools differ from each other in terms of teaching methods, fee, textbooks, and language of instruction.However, a large number of private schools use English as a medium of instruction (Durrani, Halai, Kadiwal, Rajput, Novelli and Sayed, 2017).Hence, they are dubbed as English medium schools.
According to the Pakistan Education Statistics 2014-2015, the enrolment share of private sector is respectively 36%, 39%, and 41% at primary, middle and secondary level.The importance of English language in job hunting makes the private schools a top preference (Harlech-Jones et al., 2005).However, private English medium schools have become a lucrative business in Pakistan, where education is sold at a high price.These schools mostly use the textbooks published by foreign printing houses.Usually, students from the English medium schools prefer to take both an ordinary level and an advanced level examination (Rahman, 2004).

The MadrassaSystem
In Arabic, Madrassa (or Madrasa, Madrasah) means "school".In a descriptive definition, Madrassa is 'an educational institution offering instruction in Islamic subjects including, but not limited to, the Quran, the sayings of Prophet Muhammad, jurisprudence, and law' (Blanchard 2007, p. 62).According to the Pakistan Education Statistics 2013-14, Madrassas contribute a 5% share of the educational market in Pakistan.There are around 13,405 Madrassas catering for the educational needs of 1,836 million students in Pakistan.The rate of enrolement is 62% and 38% respectively.Of the Madrassas, 97% are privately run, while 3 % are managed by the public sector.There is a tendency among the Madrassa students to pursue higher education in non-religious institutions in order to find good employment opportunities (Aijazi & Angeles, 2014).
Madrassas usually get their funding from the business class.However, some foreign countries are also giving financial assistance to sectarian-based Madrassas.For instance, Saudi Arabia gives funding to Ahl-i-Hadith Madrassas, while Shia madrassas get unofficial financial support from Iran.These Madrassas are a centre of attraction for the militant organizations, which tend to approach them for distributing hate literature (Rahman, 2004).
Madrassas provide separate educational facilities for boys and girls.They are also divided between Sunni and Shia Madrassas.The Sunni madrassas are further divided into different kinds of madrassas based on the Sunni sub-sects in Pakistan, which include Deobandi, Brailvi, Ahle Hadith/Salafi, and Jamat-i-Islami.The Madrassa curriculum is planned by each individual school board on sectarian lines.Hence, different Madrassas have different curriculums.The following boards are responsible for the management of different kind of madrassas: Wafaqul-Madarisul-Arabiya (established in 1960 to look after the Sunni Deobandi institutions), Tanzimul-Madaris (also set up in 1960 for the management of Sunni -Barelvi madrassas), Wafaqul-Madaris Shi'a (established in 1959, the board is responsible for taking care of the Shia institutions), Rabitahul-Madrisul-Islamiya (set up by the Jamaat-i-Islami in 1983), and Wafaqul-Madarisul-Salafiya (since 1955, this board has been taking care of Ahl-i Hadith institutions).The curriculum in mostly madrassas is based on the Dars-i-Nizami.The method of memorazation of the religious text is prevalent in large number of madrassas.Commentaries are used to explain the religious text without any analytical view (Iqbal & Raza, 2015).

Tolerance and Education
The relationship between education and tolerance has been a debatable issue.The Declaration of Principles on Tolerance proclaims that education is the most effective means of preventing intolerance (UNESCO, 1995).Researchers agree on the potential of education in promoting tolerance (Afdal, 2006).However, there has been a growing debate on what sort of education contributes to increased tolerance.Parker (2010) has examined the potential of religious education.His work is a notable contribution on the role of religious education being delivered in religious schools to create religious tolerance in Indonesia.He examined the role of two private religious schools and found interfaith education to be a positive step towards religious tolerance.However, he considered a proper surveillance system inevitable for such schools to ensure that they were not breeding intolerance.Byrne (2009) saw the same potential in interfaith education in a study based on a comparison between schools in Australia and European countries, using multi-faith education in order to promote religious pluralism.He presented findings on students who undertook a course of comparative religion.The purpose was to check pre and post-test level understanding of other religions, and level of tolerance.He found a positive impact of the course on the students' tolerance level.Ekanem and Ekefre (2013) also proposed education as a solution for growing intolerance between Muslims and Christians, in Nigeria.They argued that such an education should be based on the 'philosophy of essencism' developing both physical and spiritual needs of the students.
A few studies have investigated the role of the three educational systems in Pakistan.Some researchers have criticised the curriculum being taught in public schools and Madrassas in Pakistan.Ghazi, Shahzada, Khan, Shabbk and Shah (2011) conducted a study to check whether the curriculum fulfilled the draft objectives set by the government to promote religious tolerance.A content analysis was made of the textbooks of social studies being taught in class 8 th , and Pakistan Studies' books of class 10 th being taught in Peshawar.The study found that the textbooks did not exhibit all the curriculum draft objectives related to religious tolerance; only one lesson in social studies and three lessons in Pakistan Studies books corresponded with the draft objectives.Hence, their findings highlighted that the curriculum included supportive of both tolerant and intolerant material.They concluded that material related to tolerance should be reviewed and edited accordingly in the curriculum.It further emphasized that education and media may play a positive role in creating tolerance in the society.
Hussain, Salim, and Naveed (2011) conducted a study providing insight into teachers' practices and its impact on students' attitudes towards minorities in Pakistan.The study was based on both qualitative and quantitative methods including textbooks analysis, focus group discussions, and interviews with teachers and students of public schools and Madrassas.The textbook analysis showed that the curriculum had a strong 'Islamic orientation' ignoring the minorities' beliefs.Moreover, negative content was found in the curriculum against India, Hindus and Great Britain.Interviews with public teachers revealed that they advocated respect for minorities in accordance with the attitudes of the minority in question towards Islam.While public school teachers and students had problems in identifying minorities as Pakistani citizens, the Madrassa teachers were quite clear about minorities' status as citizens of Pakistan.The English school system was not included in the study.
Another study on the three educational systems was carried out by Ahmed, Shaukat, and Abiodullah (2009) in a slightly different way.They investigated the role of the three school systems of Pakistan in developing the traits of tolerance, honesty, respect, and patriotism, and violence among students.In their study, the level of religious tolerance was found to be highest among the students of the private school system and lowest among madrassa students, with the Urdu medium students in the middle.The level of patriotism, honesty, and respect for elders were found to be high among Madrassa students as compared to the two other educational systems.The study also investigated the sources of learning Islamic values.It was found that the highest number of private school students reported learning Islamic values from their father while Madrassa students reported to learn such values from their teachers.Television was found to be a major source of learning for the public school students.Rahman (2004) highlighted sectarian based tendencies and unnecessary criticism of Western domination in the syllabus taught in most Madrassas.However, McClure (2009) investigated Western media's misinterpretation of the Madrassa's syllabus and enrolment rate.He refuted the commonly held belief that all the Madrassas supported militancy.He blamed the Western media for giving a biased picture of the situation.
Contrary to the McClure's study, Nisar (2010) held the view that the influence of the Madrassas should not be understated just because of its enrolment rate.He argued that even if a small number of Madrassa students would use force against the state, they could be a greater danger than the Taliban elements.A qualitative analysis by Nisar (2010) gave an insight into the outcome of the three educational systems in Pakistan.He argued that the educational systems in Pakistan tended to make three different types of citizens.The students of the English medium schools built up a ruling class.Urdu medium school system created "compliant subjects".On the other hand, the Madrassa students were more inclined to use force against the ruling and the lower class.The study concluded that these three educational systems pose a great challenge to the unity of Pakistan.

Gender Equality
A number of studies have investigated the effects of the academic curriculum on gender equality.Ullaha and Skelton (2013) studied gender biases in the school curriculum in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the provinces in Pakistan.They conducted a content analysis of 24 textbooks in Urdu, English, and Social Studies intended for classes 1 to 8. The study showed that the textbooks contained more male than female characters, and both were represented in stereotyped ways.The study concluded that this gender biased approach used in the curriculum contributes to keeping girls in a limited position.The findings by Mirza (2004) support the aforementioned study.Mirza (2004) conducted a content analysis of 194 books of various subjects from the entire country.Opinions from content developers were also included.Educational scientists, teachers and students were interviewed, and focus-group discussions were arranged.The findings indicated that the curriculum was to a large extent male-centered.Only 7.7% of individuals mentioned in the curriculum were women, and the personalities projected male and female stereotypes.A few professional roles for women were included.Half of the educational stakeholders also acknowledged that the curriculum was not fulfilling girls' needs.
Bradly and Saigol (2012) found the same problem within the Madrassa education.They concluded that the curriculum taught in most of the Madrassas had different content for boys and girls.They argued that the purpose was to infuse patriarchal values into both genders.Durrani (2008) explored the potential of the curriculum and the role of teachers in constructing gender and national identities, in a qualitative study.She also identified gender stereotypes in textbooks, where men were given the place of defenders and religious leaders, while women were portrayed in the domestic sphere.

Bellicose Attitudes towards India
The role education may play in constructing national identities and forming the image of the 'other self' has been studied by several researchers.A study by Korostelina (2010) provides an insight into how history education contributes to form national identities.After analysing history textbooks in the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the study brought forth that both countries were using history education to strengthen their national identities and forming a negative image of each other.Russia was projected as an "aggressive enemy" in Ukrainian textbooks, while Ukrainian nationalism was targeted in Russian textbooks.
The same problem is identified in Pakistan.A study by Saigol (2005) gave an insight into how the textbooks in the public school system in Pakistan projected "the enemy within" and "the enemy without".It was found that Hindus, Britishers, Jews, and Sikhs were presented in the curriculum as 'others' in order to create a 'Pakistani self'.A similar work has been done by Durrani and Dunne (2010), who explored the link between school education and student's identity formation into being Muslims and Pakistanis.This study was conducted in four schools in the NWFP province, currently known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.The data drawn from different educational documents showed that Islam was being used in the curriculum to create an identity of a 'Muslim Pakistani' and a 'non-Muslim other'.The same study found that the role of women was undermined, and Hindus were projected as the 'other' in the curriculum conveying a negative image of the neighbouring country.The study found that out of 17 'icon' personalities mentioned in the curriculum, 11 were glorified because of their conflicts with non-Muslims.A notable finding of the study was that when the students were given the task of making images of 'others' or 'non-Pakistanis,' they portrayed Hindu symbols.The study highlighted the curriculum as one of the many factors involved in the development of national identity in Pakistan.
Lall (2008) made similar findings.She brought forth the fundamentalisation of textbooks in both India and Pakistan.The study showed how education was used in both India and Pakistan to create each other's image as an enemy country, to support their own national interests.Behuria and Shehzad (2013) also highlighted the distorted, misinterpreted version of Indo-Pak history in the curriculum in Pakistan, and argued that it can have serious repercussions on nation-building in Pakistan.However, the study brings forth a notable recommendation of the writing of common history of pre-partitioned India in order to facilitate friendly relations between India and Pakistan.These studies were conducted using textbook analyses of syllabuses taught in schools in Pakistan.However, there is a scarcity of indepth empirical research on students' attitudes and views from the three educational systems in question in Pakistan.

Research Questions
The study formulated the following research questions: (1) to what extent do the students' attitudes from three educational systems differ in regard to religious tolerance, gender equality, and bellicose attitudes towards India?(2) Are there sex differences in students' attitudes?(3) To what extent do respondents from different school systems consider themselves as victims of intolerance?

Sample
A questionnaire was filled in by 585 students (285 girls, 300 boys), 15−17 years of age, from three different types of schools in Pakistan: Urdu Medium, English Medium, and Madrassas.The mean age for both girls and boys was 15.8 years (SD = 0.8).Of the respondents, 528 were Sunni, 52 were Shia, and 5 were Christians.Age group analyses were not performed due to the low number of cases in some cells (see Table 1).

Instrument
The questionnaire included four scales measuring (a) a positive view on gender equality, (b) level of individual religious tolerance, (c) perceived availability of sources for learning tolerance and respect, and (d) bellicose attitudes towards India.It also measured experiences to what extent tolerance and respect was taught by family, friends, the mosque, religious teachers, elders, the media, school, books, and the internet.Response alternatives were on a five-point scale (0 = strongly disagree, 1 = disagree, 2 = neutral, 3 = agree, 4 = strongly agree).Cronbach's Alphas and number of items are presented in Table 2.The questionnaire also included a question about personal experiences of religious intolerance.

Procedure
The questionnaires were distributed in 17 schools.The institutions were selected randomly from different posh and slum areas of Lahore -the largest city and the capital of the Punjab province.The Madrassas were also selected randomly.

Ethical Considerations
The study adheres to the principles concerning human research ethics of the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association, 2013), as well as guidelines for the responsible conduct of research of The Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity (2012).

Correlations between the Scales in the Study
Correlations between Positive View on Gender Equality, Level of Individual Religious Tolerance, Perceived Availability of Sources for Learning Tolerance and Respect, and Bellicose Attitudes towards India are presented in Table 3.The highest correlation was between the level of individual religious tolerance and a positive view of gender equality (.64).Religious tolerance also correlated positively with perceived availability of sources for learning tolerance and respect, and negatively with bellicose attitudes.Highly bellicose attitudes correlated with a low level of religious tolerance and perceived sources for learning tolerance and respect.

Ratings of Students from Three Types of Schools on the Four Scales
A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted with gender and school type as independent variables and the four scales as dependent variables.The multivariate test revealed significant effects for gender, school type, and the interaction between them (see Table 4, and Figure 1).The univariate tests showed a significant difference between girls and boys regarding positive attitudes towards gender equality and individual religious tolerance, with girls scoring significantly higher on both.Self-ratings by students from the three different school types differed significantly on all three of the measures.According to Scheffé's contrast test, students from English Medium schools scored significantly higher on both a positive view about gender equality and on level of individual religious tolerance than students from Urdu Medium schools and Madrassas.They also scored significantly lower than the other students on bellicose attitudes towards India.
There was no difference between the school types regarding perceived availability of sources for learning tolerance and respect.Interaction effects were also found between gender and school type.Girls from Madrassas scored significantly lower than others on religious tolerance, and significantly highest on bellicose attitudes towards India.Boys from Madrassas scored highest on perceived sources for learning tolerance.

Individual Experience of Religious Intolerance
Students from the Madrassas had experienced themselves to be victims of religious intolerance significantly more often than students from Urdu Medium or English Medium schools (mean values 1.02, 0.50, 0.49 respectively) [F(2,573) = 15.87,p < .001].Note.For results in brackets p = .05-.09.

Discussion
The analysis of the data showed that the opinions of the students attending English Medium schools differed significantly from those of the students of Urdu medium schools and Madrassas.They scored highest on both religious tolerance and gender equality, and lowest on bellicose attitudes towards India.One possible explanation may be that the English medium system is catering for the educational needs of the elite or wealthier class, which is already liberal in its orientation.However, some other factors may be contributing to this phenomenon, which include the curriculum, teaching methods, and the environment of the educational institution.
Scoring high on positive views on gender equality by the students attending the English medium schools might be due to the fact that most English medium schools are co-educational, where boys and girls can find more opportunities to interact with each other.Urdu medium schools are gender-separated after primary education, and Madrassas are gender-separated altogether.Furthermore, the Madrassa curriculum is different for boys and girls, supporting patriarchal values and male dominance (Bradley & Saigol, 2012).This might be one of the reasons that the students attending Madrassas held the most negative views on gender equality.
The findings of gender differences regarding personal religious tolerance and a positive view of gender equality were also significant.Girls, as expected, scored higher than boys on both.It suggests that girls are aware of their rights and do not want to be submissive to men anymore.Thus, it reflects social change in the Pakistani society.The fact that girls scored higher on religious tolerance than boys should be considered in the particular context of Pakistani society.There is a difference between girls and boys in regard to their religious learning experiences; most girls receive religious learning largely at home, while boys can freely go to the mosque and meet the religious scholars.Boys also have more opportunities to interact with the outside world than the girls.It might indicate that they are being affected negatively in case of their religious learning through religious institutions.The study also showed that the girls from Madrassas scored lowest on individual religious tolerance.This finding also supports the aforementioned explanation.
Notwithstanding, the high correlation between religious tolerance and a positive view on gender equality suggest that these two are related.It supports one of the hypotheses of the study.It appears that a tolerant society will facilitate gender English Medium Urdu Medium Madrassas equality.The fact that Madrassa respondents scored lower on gender equality than the other respondents indicates that Madrassa learning may be a serious obstacle in improving the conditions of women in Pakistan.
An unexpected finding of the study was that the Madrassa respondents considered themselves as victims of religious intolerance to a greater extent than the respondents of Urdu medium and English medium schools.This finding may be interpreted in several ways.First of all, the question arises: is it really true that they are the victims of intolerance, or it is just based on their assumption?The answer to this might lie in the concept of 'groupthink', pioneered in the work of Janis (1971).One feature of this is the need to create a common enemy which often results in the need to develop a victim mentality, or a blame culture.The findings of the present study may reflect this psychological phenomenon.It is possible that, being established on sectarian lines in Pakistan, they may indeed suffer discrimination.However, it is also possible that the pupils attending Madrassas are being brainwashed more than the pupils in the other two school systems due to the sect-based education they receive.It might be creating an 'us versus them' feeling in them that make them assume that others are intolerant towards them: this is a typical way in which groupthink may develop a victim mentality.This perception of being a victim of religious intolerance can have serious repercussions on the society because a sense of insecurity may give rise to violent sectarianism.Experiencing themselves as victim of intolerance might be a reason for making them intolerant.In other words, if the Madrassa students consider themselves as victims of intolerance, it might provide them a justification to be intolerant towards others and involving themselves in violent activities.It may be a reason of growing sectarianism, extremism and terrorism in Pakistan.This could create an retaliatory cycle of intolerance in Pakistani society.
Furthermore, the current study shows that the girls from the Madrassas scored lower than all other students on religious tolerance, and highest on bellicose attitudes.There is a scarcity of research on girls' Madrassas in Pakistan.This finding may indicate that the Madrassa education is affecting girls more negatively than boys.
Students from the Urdu medium schools had been expected to score higher on bellicose attitudes towards India than the other respondents.They did indeed score higher on bellicose attitudes than the English medium respondents but, when compared with the students from Madrassas, they were almost at the same level.However, the data showed the tendency of high bellicose attitude among the students attending the Urdu medium schools.It should be taken as a cause of concern for two reasons: first, a high proportion of the population sends their children into Urdu medium school.Indeed, this section of the population tends to be less wealthy and holding jobs where there is, perhaps, less awareness of international situations, and they are more dependent on culturally inherited opinions for their views.Secondly, the Urdu medium school system is mostly a state-run educational system.The state holds strong views on the India-Pakistan situation, where there is understandable fear related to tension between these two nuclear powers.This may generate more bellicose attitudes, and the curriculum (with centrally controlled textbooks) may, perhaps implicitly, reflect this.Girls from the Madrassas scored higher on bellicose attitudes than all other respondents, which may be explained in the religious context.India is predominantly a Hindu country.Muslims and Hindus have been engaged in many violent conflicts both before and after the partition because of their religious identities.The lowest score of Madrassa girls on individual religious tolerance might justify the highest bellicose attitudes towards India in the light of India's religious identity.To recapitulate, the difference between Madrassa girls and Madrassa boys might be due to the lack of exposure to outside world among the girls.

Limitations of the Study
Although, the study was conducted carefully, it still has some limitations which needs to be discussed.First of all, the sample is taken just from Lahore -one city of the Punjab province.Hence, it cannot be the representative for all the schools and Madrassas in Punjab.Second, the sample size is relatively small when divided between three types of schools.

Conclusions
Overall, the study indicates that Madrassa is a problematic educational system which needs to be reformed thoroughly in order to make Pakistan a pluralistic society.It is inevitable because the Madrassa-educated class works as a pressure group to change state policies in Pakistan.However, the Madrassa is not the only a trouble-making education system; the study shows that the respondent from the Urdu medium school system also have a high tendency towards bellicose attitudes towards India, if compared with the respondents of the English medium schools.Overall, the Urdu medium school

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Mean values on four scales measuring attitudes among student from three different types of schools in Pakistan (N = 579)

Table 1 :
Numbers of Girls (n =285) and Boys (n =300) of Three Age Groups in the Schools in Lahore, Pakistan, that Participated in the Study

Table 2 :
Cronbach's Alphas, and Number of Items in the Scales Used in the Study

Table 3 :
Correlations between the Four Scales in the Study (N = 585)

Table 4 :
Results of a Gender x School Type (2 x 3) Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) with Four Scales as Dependent Variables (N = 585) *) U = Urdu Medium Schools, M = Madrassas, E = English Medium Schools.