At Jewish religious schools, they sit at wooden tables to study Torah and Hebrew.
Pakistan's president, Pervaiz Musharraf, has ordered religious schools to expel all foreign students by tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has set up a new anti-terrorist department and plans to regulate religious schools.
According to various estimates Pakistan has between 10, 000 and 40, 000 religious schools, or madrassas.
Not all of it goes to cover the maintenance costs of mosques, cemeteries, religious schools and libraries.
At first they were mainly foreign but now they tend to be Somali boys educated in the movement's religious schools.
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Uzbek officials believe madrassahs (religious schools) in Pakistan are fuelling unrest in Uzbekistan, especially in the volatile region of Fergana.
This matters because religious schools (run by churches, but mostly financed by taxpayers) are the best state schools in London.
Wherever state money comes close to religious schools, government regulation is called in to check that religion is not thereby promoted.
These would enable poor parents to choose their children's schools (including, controversially, private and religious schools) thus promoting competition to attract pupils.
This is perhaps the most famous of Pakistan's madrassas, or religious schools.
Furthermore, parliament approved a law which allows religious schools, known as imam hatips, to take on students as young as 11.
So religious schools' ability to choose their pupils has been whittled away.
Vermont and Maine have run voucher schemes for more than a century, though neither allows parents to spend public money at religious schools.
Located close to the Indian border, the city also houses the headquarters of the Wifaq-ul-Madaris (association of religious schools), which operates establishments throughout Pakistan.
But many are well educated, with good language skills learned at religious schools and strong international support networks - many Christian churches are international.
Far from fearing private-school competition, the city's public system has embraced it: it has already absorbed three private religious schools (two Christian, one Hebrew).
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Hefajat-e-Islam draws its strength from the country's madrassahs, or religious schools.
Ehud Barak's coalition government in Israel wobbled after the ultra-Orthodox Shas party said it would pull out after a row over money for its religious schools.
Add the increasingly popular notion that children may receive federal vouchers to attend private religious schools, and it is hardly surprising that first-amendment zealots react with alarm.
Ministers will only get involved in certain circumstances, for example if another council objects, if a shake-up affects a sixth form or where religious schools are involved.
Most Americans can afford to put their kids in private preschool programs at secular or religious schools, and a number of families get subsidized tuition at Head Start programs.
Even while excluding most support for religious schools, the Court has raised no objections to individuals getting tax breaks for donating money to their churches or synagogues (which in turn support schools).
On the opening day of this term it refused to take up the case of an Arizona law which allows tax credits for tuition fees to religious schools, letting the law stand.
And secular groups also point out that while state school pupils are "protected" from creationist teaching, similar guidelines do not exist to cover children who attend private religious schools - Christian, Jewish and Muslim.
While in some cities, such as Liverpool, religious schools can be found at the bottom as well as the top of the league tables, church schools remain among the most sought after in the country.
Schemes being pioneered in several American cities face legal challenges on the ground that, since many of those given vouchers choose Catholic or other religious schools, this violates the constitutional separation between church and state.
Spend the day plumbing the depths of the city's Mamluk-era souq (market), which dates back to the 14th and 15th Centuries and is home to a plethora of historic madrassas (religious schools), mosques and khans (travellers' inns).
But the departure of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, with its 17 seats, was a bitter blow, especially after Mr Barak had supported the party in its battle with another coalition ally, Meretz, over money for its religious schools.
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