A/HRC/25/58/Add.2 must derive from the person’s heart and that it cannot be the business of the Government or any other earthly power to interfere coercively in this sphere. VI. Education 38. When visiting a number of schools, both public and private, the Special Rapporteur was able to gain first-hand experience of how teachers and students from different religious backgrounds lived and learned together. He appreciated the friendly atmosphere in all the schools he visited, and he particularly enjoyed a frank and intense discussion with a group of eleventh grade students in a private school. According to information provided by headmasters, schools sometimes cater for the local population in general by, for instance, inviting people living in the neighbourhood to use libraries, borrow books or journals and participate in school festivities. 39. According to information received, private schools are generally run by different Christian denominations. Apparently, private schools run by Muslim organizations do not exist in Jordan. Existing private Christian schools offer religious instruction for both Muslim and Christian students, who receive an education based on the tenets of their respective faiths. This is not the case in public schools, which to date only cater for Muslim students, while Christian students attending public schools may decide whether they wish to participate in Islamic classes or prefer to leave the classroom and, for instance, spend time in the library. The Special Rapporteur emphasizes in this context that no student should ever coercively be exposed to religious instruction that goes against his or her religious or other conviction or the convictions of his or her parents. The headmasters of the schools visited assured the Special Rapporteur that this requirement, which is explicitly enshrined in international standards on freedom of religion or belief (such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 18, paras. 2 and 4), is honoured in practice, including by providing appropriate facilities for non-attending Christian students. Whether a student from a Muslim family who refuses to take Muslim instruction has the option to seek an exemption is unclear. When asking this question, the Special Rapporteur was told that not a single case had yet arisen. From the perspective of freedom of religion or belief, exit options from religious instruction based on the tenets of a particular faith should be available not only for members of minorities but for all students or parents, respectively, who feel that the teaching is incompatible with their convictions; this also includes persons following the majority branch of faith (namely, in the case of Jordan, followers of Sunni Islam). 40. Representatives of Christian communities repeatedly expressed their opinion that public schools should offer Christian instruction for those Christian students who wish to avail themselves of such a possibility. Requests and practical proposals on this issue had reportedly been presented to the respective governmental institutions for approval, but to date had been unsuccessful. When discussing this issue with representatives of the Ministry of Education, the Special Rapporteur heard some scepticism concerning the ability of different Christian communities to agree on a common curriculum. He was told that, given the small size of Christian denominations, such an agreement would be necessary to provide Christian education in practice. Representatives of Christian communities emphasized, however, that they had already largely agreed on the curricular basis of religious instruction, and that proposals to this effect had already been made in the late 1990s, but unfortunately to no avail. The Special Rapporteur encourages the Ministry of Education to resume discussions with representatives of Christian churches to explore further the options of Christian religious instruction in public schools based on a broad curriculum on which various denominations could agree. 12