Bismillah Jan
Muhammad Wahid, 15, and Abdul Wahid, 13*, are two Afghan refugees working part-time in a packaging shop while being educated at a madrasa in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan. Both brothers have a strong desire to pursue higher education in the country where they were born.
According to the latest data from the Pakistan Institute of Education (PIE), there are currently 26.2 million out-of-school children (OOSC) in Pakistan, with 3.13 million of them in Balochistan. The province has the highest percentage of OOSC in the country.
At the same time, approximately one million children are enrolled in madrasas across Balochistan, both registered and unregistered. The PIE report states that there are 3,004 registered madrasas in the province with 0.3 million students enrolled. However, the Directorate General of Religious Education has only 506 registered madrasas on record. Neither government departments nor organizations have exact data on the total number of madrasas or students.
Traditionally, madrasa education has been considered informal, focusing mainly on theological studies. However, there is a shift taking place, with students now being introduced to STEM subjects as well.
The Wahid brothers are enrolled in the 18-month Alternative Learning Program (ALP), an initiative designed for both Pakistani nationals and Afghan refugees studying in madrasas. The program, funded by the European Union and supported by UNICEF, allows students to study up to the middle-school level. Currently, 40 middle-school centers, including those in madrasas, operate under the Balochistan Education Support Program (BESP), educating hundreds of children.
Javed Mari, an ALP tutor at a madrasa in Hazarganji, Quetta, says, “The program has had a transformative impact on madrasa students, helping them transition to the 9th grade.”
The program’s objective is to mainstream madrasa students into formal education and provide them with opportunities for vocational skills training. Abdul and Muhammad have been taking a Diploma in Information Technology (DIT) course for over a year.
The Balochistan Education Sector Plan 2013-17 emphasized that religious education could coexist with formal education and urged the government to engage with madrasas willing to collaborate.
“We are providing free education to about 15,000 school dropouts, refugees, and children from poor families,” says Naqeeb Khilji, Provincial Coordinator of BESP. “ALP centers have been set up in 20 districts of Balochistan to address the gap of OOSC.”
According to the UNHCR, there are 2.25 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan, excluding the unregistered, with 23 percent of them residing in Balochistan. Thousands of refugee children rely on madrasa education, as it provides free religious schooling, food, and shelter.
Over the last four decades, around 56,000 refugee children have benefited from UNHCR’s free education programs in Pakistan. However, nearly 80 percent of the approximately 500,000 school-aged refugee children lack access to primary education. A 2016 UNHCR report indicated that 25 percent of refugee children attend public schools in Pakistan, 21 percent go to private schools, while 53 percent receive education in Afghan special schools and madrasas.
Refugees continue to face difficulties accessing formal and higher education in Pakistan. Challenges include documentation requirements, such as birth certificates or B-Forms, which many refugees do not possess.
Muhammad Idrees, an Afghan refugee living in Pishin, Balochistan, expressed his gratitude for the ALP and UNICEF for providing quality education and IT skills. “I faced many financial difficulties when my family moved to Afghanistan a year ago,” Idrees said. “I want to enroll in matric after passing 8th grade from the madrasa, but schools are demanding birth certificates and other documents that I don’t have.”
The Balochistan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education offers admission to registered refugees only if they provide a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Afghan consulate.
Hameedullah Sherani, a journalist based in Balochistan who covers refugee issues, highlights the difficulties refugees face regarding documentation requirements when seeking admission to educational institutions in Pakistan.
The Government of Pakistan also offers thousands of scholarships for higher education to Afghan nationals living in Afghanistan. However, the number of scholarships and seats available to refugees in public-sector universities is limited. The DAFI (Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative), run by UNHCR, helps address this issue by providing fully funded undergraduate scholarships to refugees holding Proof of Registration (POR) cards. Over 1,700 refugees have benefited from this tertiary-level education program.
“UNHCR representatives avoid giving on-the-record responses about refugee education,” Hameedullah adds. “The issue of limited seats and documentation is indeed a genuine concern that needs to be resolved.”
* Names have been changed upon request.
The writer is a final-year journalism student based in Quetta and tweets @khialay.
