Ankara to open religious school in Pakistani city

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Pakistan needs to overhaul its religious education system, and Turkey can help by opening a school based on the Turkish imam-hatip school model, the head of the Religious Affairs Directorate, Mehmet Görmez, said yesterday.

Recalling trips to Pakistan during which he visited some of the country’s largest madrasas, Görmez said: “As a friend and brother of yours, I came to believe that Pakistan needs to revise its Islamic education.” He made the remarks during a meeting with the head of Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology, Muhammad Khan Sheerani. “Our directorate has both a proposal and a plan. We want to build an imam-hatip high school in Pakistan. Our infrastructure for that is ready. We only need to know who our counterpart will be in Pakistan and in which city this will be planned,” Görmez said.

Turkey’s path

Sheerani expressed readiness to cooperate with the directorate, and said the Pakistani people wished to follow Turkey’s path of development. 

Afghan officials have also asked Turkey to set up several imam-hatip schools in their conflict-torn country.

In a related development, ministers from member countries of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) met in Ankara yesterday to discuss the establishment of an Education Institute in the Turkish capital. The institute would promote training in the languages of ECO member countries, conduct research on education technologies, organize academic exchange programs and conferences, and create a pool of scholarships for students and academics from member countries, Education Minister Ömer Dinçer said.