A/HRC/31/18/Add.2 communities reported they felt exposed to the unfounded suspicion that they would engage in systematic proselytism. VI. Educational issues A. Conceptual clarification 63. Under international human rights law, States should make at least primary education compulsory for everyone, as also provided for in the Constitution. This mandatory status of school education, which is in the service of everyone’s right to education, at the same time requires particular safeguards to ensure that students, in particular those of a tender age, are not exposed to pressure by their teachers or school authorities to participate in religious ceremonies against their own beliefs. This naturally has consequences for the way in which religious education should be organized in schools. 64. To clarify the issue, it may be helpful to distinguish between “information about religions” on the one hand and “religious instruction” on the other. While “information about religions” — in analogy to information about history, culture or geography — can legitimately become part of the mandatory curriculum, “religious instruction” in the narrow sense — i.e. being familiarized with religious prayers, rituals, ceremonies, etc. — should not be taught against the will of students or their parents, respectively. B. Religious education in government schools 65. Given the complexity of the education system in Bangladesh, in which government schools,4 private schools and religious schools of different sorts exist in parallel, it is not easy to get the full picture of the current situation of religious education in schools. In government schools, “religion” constitutes a mandatory subject, which seems to combine elements of neutral information with elements of religious instruction. The idea is that students receive education in their own respective religions, which is to be taught by teachers who themselves profess the same religions. Obviously, this presupposes a sufficient number of available teachers trained to give religious education, which is not always the case. Moreover, the current threshold for setting up a separate class of religious education seems to be very high. 66. Despite the Government’s efforts to increase the number of teachers who profess minority religions, as laid out in the 2010 National Education Policy, the Special Rapporteur heard a number of examples that revealed technical problems in the implementation of that policy. In the absence of adequately skilled teachers from minorities, it may happen that Buddhist, Christian or Hindu children receive religious education from teachers who have not had any specific training on the subject. This appears to affect children mainly from religious minorities, such as Buddhists or Christians, who might have to opt for another religion class in order to obtain the necessary academic points to further their studies. This somehow nourishes fears among the communities that their children might be alienated from their own religions. In a particularly disturbing case, students were reportedly requested in an exam to state the reasons why Ahmadis should be declared “non-Muslims”. 4 The Special Rapporteur could not visit a public school owing to a public holiday announced just the day before of the scheduled visit. 13