March 15 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Pakistani children enrolled in Islamist academies, or madrassas, is lower than estimated last year in a landmark U.S. report on terrorism, according to Harvard University researchers.

``Madrassas account for less than 1 percent of all enrollment in the country, and there is no evidence of a dramatic increase in recent years,'' according to a report issued today by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

The U.S. called the Pakistani schools, which teach children to recite the Koran from memory, ``incubators for violent extremism'' in the final report from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, released in July.

The government commission, assigned to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said 200,000 Pakistani children were enrolled in madrassas in Karachi alone, and warned that poverty and ineffective government could boost Islamist recruitment of children throughout the country.

The authors of the Harvard report said 200,000, or 0.3 percent, of all Pakistani children ages 5 to 19 studied full-time at madrassas as of 2001. The numbers ``may have increased somewhat'' since then, the authors said.

The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based conflict- prevention organization, estimated three years ago that 1.5 million Pakistani students were studying at the religious academies.

Afghan Border Area

In the districts that border Afghanistan, where enrollment is highest, 7.5 percent of all children attended madrassas, said study authors Tahir Andrabi of California-based Pomona College; Jishnu Das of the World Bank; and Asim Ijaz Khwaja and Tristan Zajonc of Harvard.

Madrassas in the Afghan border area ``reportedly continued to teach religious extremism and violence,'' said the U.S. State Department's human rights report on Pakistan issued Feb. 28. ``Madrassas served as an alternative to the public school system in many areas,'' the report noted. ``Many madrassas failed to provide an adequate education, focusing solely on Islamic studies. Graduates were often unable to find employment.''

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Pakistani schools are producing ``the next generation of terrorists,'' according to the 9/11 Commission's report.

``Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?'' Rumsfeld asked advisers in 2003, according to the report.

The Harvard study is titled ``Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan: A Look at the Data.'' Khwaja is an assistant professor of public policy at the university's school of government.

To contact the reporter on this story: Demian McLean in Washington at dmclean8@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 15, 2005 18:00 EST