WHAT DID YOU LEARN AT SCHOOL TODAY?

Christina Lamb visits a Pakisanti madrasah and finds bin Laden posters on the walls, an honour roll of Taliban alumni and lots of mindless students:

The teenagers I spoke to were unable to do simple calculations and had never heard of dinosaurs. They laughed uproariously at the idea that man could walk on the moon.

When I asked what they wanted to be when they graduated, they talked of becoming mullahs. One or two spoke of embracing shahadat, martyrdom, and of going to paradise with its 72 virgins, almost as though this world was just a grade to get through.

My visit was short — as a woman, although clad in an all-encompassing burqa, I had been warned I might be stoned and my questions were clearly provoking some hostility.

Oh well, it keeps them off the streets.