Pakistan

Basic Data
Official Country Name:	Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Region:	East & South Asia
Population:	141,553,775
Language(s):	Punjabi, Sindhi, Siraiki, Pashtu, Urdu, Balochi, Hindko, Brahui, English, Burushaski
Literacy Rate:	37.8%
Compulsory Schooling:	6 years
Public Expenditure on Education:	2.7%
Libraries:	10
Educational Enrollment:	Primary: 15,532,000
	Secondary: 5,022,416

History & Background

There are two systems of education in Pakistan: traditional and modern. The traditional system, which focuses on Islam, has experienced an exponential growth since the 1970s, influenced by the wave of Islamic fundamentalism from Iran. In the late 1990s, the traditional Islamic schools, called madrassahs, came increasingly under the influence of the anti-West Taliban movement in Afghanistan. The traditional schools have multiplied tenfold, for the large part training mujahideens whom the government of General Parvez Musharraf, who assumed authority in October, 1999, has lauded as freedom fighters, ready to wage a jihad (religious war) through terrorist activities against nonbelievers. While only 4,350 madrassahs are registered with the government, the actual number has been estimated at between 40,000 to 50,000. A revealing article by U.S. anti-terrorist expert Jessica Stern in Foreign Affairs (November-December 2000) has warned the world about the kind of "education" imparted by these "Schools of Hate" and their role in creating a "mindset" for jihad.

A critical examination of the modern formal education system extending from primary to the university levels by experts ranging from the World Bank to those in research institutes in Pakistan has found the colleges in the country "sub-standard, bureaucratic, government-controlled, poor and inefficient," to quote Tariq Rahman of the National Institute of Pakistan Studies of the Quaid-I-Azam University. Such criticism fails to explain how the several hundred thousand Pakistani graduates who have migrated to the West, notably to Great Britain, the United States, and Canada, mostly as professionals—whether as doctors, engineers, pharmacists or educators—have with only marginal additional training been able to compete with the very best in those advanced countries.

Pakistan came into being when colonial British rule on the Indian subcontinent ended in August 1947 and the two sovereign states of India and Pakistan were created. Of these, Pakistan constituted two wings—West and East—separated by more than one thousand miles of Indian territory. The new state was the result of a demand for a separate homeland for India's Muslims as articulated by the Muslim League political party and its sole spokesman, Mohammed Ali Jinnah (1876-1948). The Lahore Resolution, adopted by the Muslim League in 1940, however, had called for independent states in the northeast and northwest. That was changed by Muslim League legislators in 1946, who called for a single Muslim state, Pakistan. The new state's capital was Karachi. Partition still left one-third of the subcontinent's Muslims in India; after the separation of East Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh in 1971, Pakistan was left with 45 percent of its original population, the number of its Muslim citizens being less than those in India.

For the first 24 years of its history, Pakistan had two constituent parts: West Pakistan, comprising the four provinces of the Punjab (western half of the old Punjab), Sind, the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), and Baluchistan; and East Pakistan, comprising East Bengal, which seceded after a bitter political struggle and military conflict from Pakistan in December 1971 to become the new state of Bangladesh with 55 percent of the population. Pakistan is bounded to the west by Iran, by India to the east, China to the northeast and Afghanistan in the north. There are federally ruled territories, including the capital of Islamabad, and the country controls a part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan traces its history of education to the advent of Islam and Islamic/Arabic culture to the Indian subcontinent with the invasion of Muhammad bin Qasim in Sind in 712 A.D.. By that time, the Arabs had already distinguished themselves not only as conquerors and administrators over vast territories in the Middle East and North Africa but even more significantly as creators of a culture replete with literature, art, architecture, and religious studies. With the establishment of Muslim rule at Delhi in 1208 A.D., the Islamic culture made extensive inroads on the subcontinent, converting a quarter of its population to Islam over the next five centuries.

The traditional school system had been the mainstay of education among Muslims of the subcontinent from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries until the rise of the British power beginning in 1757. Increasingly, some leaders of the Muslim community, notably Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), urged the Muslim youth to join the modern educational system initiated by the British. With the adoption of English as a medium of instruction after Thomas Babington Macaulay's infamous minute in 1835, and the rapid increase in the number of educational institutions following Sir Charles Wood's Education Despatch of July 1854, learning in Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian receded, making way for English and for the adoption of Western education. In 1857 three universities were established in the "presidency" cities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, producing not only the subordinate bureaucrats as intended but also hundreds of university graduates wanting to take up higher education in the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences.

Hindus took more readily to the new education than did the Muslims. Muslim leaders such as Sir Sayyid saw the danger that their co-religionists would fall behind the Hindus and be kept out of the bureaucracy if they did not prefer the modern educational system over the traditional. Under Sir Sayyid's leadership, the Anglo-Oriental College (later upgraded to Aligarh Muslim University) was founded in 1875. It did not eliminate the traditional system of education, but there is no doubt that it seriously undermined its standing and standards. The Anglo-Oriental College provided higher education on the British pattern (more particularly that of Cambridge University) and produced a remarkable leadership for the Muslims of the subcontinent, particularly in present-day Uttar Pradesh, for educational, social, and legal reform and promoted the Muslim nationalist movement, which eventually led to the partition of the subcontinent and the birth of Pakistan. It also produced brilliant graduates, who went to England for higher education, some of them serving in the Indian Civil Service, which prided itself in being the iron framework of the British imperial edifice in India.

Roughly 67 percent or two-thirds of Pakistan's population of 129,871,000 (1995 estimate) lives in rural areas, leaving about 43 million in urban areas. Nationwide, children between ages 5 and 9, the primary school age, numbered about 16.8 million, while those between 10 and 17, at which point they would reach the 12th grade, numbered about 21.7 million. In general, the population is young, with persons below 30 numbering about 65 million, accounting for 50 percent of the total.

The population comprises five ethnic groups: the Punjabis, constituting the majority at 63 percent of the total; the Sindhis, at 12 percent; the Pathans, at 16 percent; Baluchis, at 5 percent; and mohajirs (literally, immigrants), who were primarily the result of a massive migration in 1947 mainly from India's state of Bihar. Corresponding to these categories are the linguistic groups, though they do not necessarily match the administrative boundaries. The languages claimed by the people in the census as mother tongue include: Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Baluchi and Brahui, the last two being used in Baluchistan.

Although Urdu is claimed by a small percentage (eight percent) as their mother tongue, it enjoys the status of the national language largely because of its historical importance during the movement for the Muslim homeland. Urdu, the language of the educated Muslim elite from Northern India who provided critical leadership to the nationalist movement for the creation of Pakistan, draws substantially on Persian and Arabic for its vocabulary and uses a modified version of the Persian script, which is written from right to left. Since the birth of Pakistan, Urdu is taught in all schools; in Punjab, it is taught as first language and its script is used by those writing in Punjabi.

English was used from the beginning as a national language for official purposes. And though the 1956 constitution limited its use for 20 years, the 1973 constitution stipulated a 15-year period during which Urdu would completely replace English for official purposes. This has not happened.

Almost all the people—97 percent—are Muslims, two-thirds of whom are Sunnis professing the orthodox Hanafi school of jurisprudence. Nearly one-third are Shi'ites, who are subdivided into Ismailis (followers of the Agha Khan), the Twelvers (Ithna Asharis), and Bohras. Besides these, there is a very small though influential sect of the Ahmadiyahs, or Qadianis, who do not accept Muhammad as the final prophet, which constitutes the first of the five basic tenets of Islam. In 1974, a constitutional amendment categorized the Ahmadiyahs as non-Muslims; they were grossly persecuted during the decade-long Zia regime (1977-88). Hindus and Christians account for 1.5 percent each, and there are small numbers of Parsis or Zoroastrians, with a very high percentage of graduates and professionals.

At the time of the country's birth in 1947, large-scale human migrations took place: an estimated 4.7 million left Pakistan for India while 6.5 million came to Pakistan with a net gain in population of 1.8 million. The largest demographic changes occurred in the Punjab, which gained 5.2 million and lost 3.6 million. The second largest to suffer demographic changes was Sind, which lost most of its Hindu population, which had controlled more than 90 percent of its economy and held important positions in bureaucracy, education, and the professions. Most immigrants flocked to the cities; in 1951, nearly one-half of the population in the major cities were immigrants, including a very large group from India's Bihar state. The Biharis and their descendants are pejoratively called mohajirs (immigrants), a term that should have applied to everybody who came from outside and should, in all fairness, have a terminal date, after which time they should be considered regular inhabitants of the land. The Biharis, who concentrated in Karachi, remain unintegrated into the Pakistani society even a half-century after their initial migration. During the very unsettling conditions in Afghanistan in the late 1970s and early 1980s, an estimated 3.7 million refugees moved into Northwest Pakistan, placing an economic burden on all the facilities, including the educational system.

Constitutional & Legal Foundations

Pakistan has had three constitutions and has been for periods of time totaling over three decades ruled by its armed forces. Regardless of the nature and composition of the governments, however, education has been given a high priority throughout the country's history, as a vehicle essential to the needs and demands of a modern, independent sovereign state. Such motivation has unfortunately not been matched by adequate allocations of funds, not at least until the 1990s. At the time of its independence from British rule in 1947, Pakistan had 1 university, 20 professional colleges and 83 colleges of arts and science with a total enrollment of 37,102 students. In 2000, there were 35 universities. As for primary and secondary education, in 1947, the country (including the eastern half) had 11,057 schools with an enrollment of 1,053,000. By 1991, the number of primary schools had risen dramatically to 87,545 primary schools with an enrollment of more than 7.7 million students. There were 11,978 secondary schools with nearly 3 million students. The phenomenal expansion in education measured in the context of population rising from 42 million in the areas of the western half in 1947 to 129 million in 1995, is impressive but not adequate because it leaves illiteracy at 75 percent and female literacy at only 10 percent nationally and much lower in the rural areas of provinces such as Baluchistan, where only 2 percent of women are literate.

Importantly for education, there were several commissions periodically appointed by the government to review and recommend measures for improvement. They have all invariably been critical of the government's performance. The first All Pakistan Educational Conference was held within months of the country's birth in 1947.

Several commissions followed with their reports, often making contradictory recommendations. The Report of the Commission on National Education in 1959 constituted a landmark in the educational history of the country. It was arguably the most articulate and comprehensive statement on Pakistan's needs and plans for educational reform. Its elaborate recommendations formed the basis of the provisions for education in the Second Five Year Plan (1960-65), which by itself was noted for setting a vision for the country's development for nearly a decade and a half.

The educational goals of the Commission of 1959 and the Second Five Year Plan were universal literacy and universal primary education; qualitative improvement in education at all levels, with particular emphasis on science and technology; reduction of inequalities in educational opportunities; and, significantly for a Muslim nation established on a religious basis, an emphasis on Islamic ideology, observances, and character-building.

In 1972 Pakistan lost its eastern wing, which became the new nation of Bangladesh. In the following year, the new prime minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, criticized the post-colonial education system and urged major changes:

Hyderabad, University of Sind Press, 1972, p. 2">

Ever since we gained independence, education has remained the most neglected sector in the body politic of our country. For a long time, the obsolete idea of producing an educated class from amongst the privileged few to constitute the elite in the country remained the cornerstone of our educational system. This was a heritage of colonialism (quoted in N. A. Baloch, ed., The educational Policy 1972: Implications and Implementation, Hyderabad, University of Sind Press, 1972, p. 2).

The new policy of education Bhutto announced was designed to broaden the base of education through increased access to it by people from all strata of the society. The aim of education would be to create an equitable society based on socialism and the egalitarian values of Islam. Admission to higher education would be based on merit. Special efforts would be made to remove regional economic disparities. The government's policies would be directed toward enabling people of all provinces an opportunity through education and training to participate in the country's agricultural and industrial development and in higher levels of employment, including government. Academic freedom, limited only by considerations of national security, would be fully guaranteed to institutions of higher learning. The system would create respect for manual labor, would be more science-oriented and conscious of environmental needs, and would make the youth of the country aware of their duty to participate in social improvement programs.

Prime Minister Bhutto regretted that 50 percent of the population of the country as a whole was illiterate, with the female population being worse off, with 75 percent illiteracy. His plan introduced a number of adult literacy programs all over the country and aimed at universal primary education up to the fifth grade for boys by 1979 and for girls by 1984. The plan also aimed at redressing the imbalance in higher education, which had thus far stressed arts and humanities with an enrollment of 61 percent and grossly neglected science and technical education. In order to promote the industrial development of the country, the Bhutto administration aimed at raising the enrollment in technical education to 42 percent and in science to 30 percent.

Between 1972 and 1974 several new universities were opened and some institutions of higher education upgraded to a university status. In 1973 the University Grants Commission was established to fund all universities in the country and to help them, particularly with planning new programs. Some universities were identified as Centers of Excellence; new Area Studies Centers were established at some leading universities. Among the most notable initiatives was the establishment of the People's Open University (later named Allama Iqbal Open University) in 1974, which has blossomed into a dynamic agency for adult education open to all across the country regardless of age, gender, class, or ethnic origin. The education offered by this remarkably successful university has not only raised the level of literacy but has produced large numbers of highly qualified persons who have earned higher degrees, including the doctorate, in several fields.

Bhutto's government was toppled by General Zia-ul-Haq. Bhutto was assassinated in 1977, and along with him, his several policy initiatives, including those in the field of education, were laid to rest. Zia instituted a number of measures to win over important segments of the society, notably, the mullahs (Islamic clerics) and the large numbers of masses whom they controlled. In the late 1970s Zia ordered nationalization of private schools with the intent of providing broader access to the middle and lower classes, thereby making major dents in the elitist policies dating from the British colonial rule that had favored the middle and higher classes. Among his populist measures was making the study of Urdu compulsory at the primary and secondary levels and increasing the content of Pakistani and Islamic studies in the curriculum. Regarding these as anti-elite measures, a large number of affluent families sent their children abroad not only for university education but even for high school diplomas.

Consistent with the Zia regime's policies of Islamization of the country's polity and society, a series of educational conferences was held during 1988-89. In 1991 the government appointed the Commission on Islamization of Education to emphasize Islamic values, learning and character-building.

Educational System—Overview

The academic year extends roughly from April to September/October and November to March, varying from province to province. The weekly holiday is on Friday, the day of prayers in the Muslim world.

Basically, there are two systems of education prevalent in Pakistan: the traditional religion-based education system and the modern formal education system begun under British colonial rule and continued after the country's independence. Both systems are financed by the ministry of education, although the scrutiny by the government of standards in the modern education sector is far stricter than for the madrassahs. Since the late 1970s, with the increasing Islamization of Pakistan's polity and society, the management of the traditional institutions has been streamlined both at the provincial and the federal levels by the mullahs. This was partly helped by the fact that the madrassahs were financed out of the zakat, the Islamic tithe collected by the government.

The Traditional Schools: Above the primary level are the maktab schools, attached to the mosques, where children are initiated in religious instruction emphasizing memorization of the verses in the holy Quran. Those who complete elementary education are awarded certificates depending on their proficiency in Nazira (Reading of Holy Quran), Hifz (Memorization of Holy Quran), and Tajweed-o-Qiraat (Techniques for the Recitation of Holy Quran). Those who complete the equivalent of secondary level education are awarded the Tahmani certificate. The examination leading to it includes Arabic language and literature, Islamic law and jurisprudence, and translation of some chapters of the Quran. The higher level of Islamic learning is imparted at the madrassahs, whose graduates, called fazils, are qualified to be religious teachers in secondary schools as well for teaching religious subjects in the modern education system. They may be awarded Mauqoof Alaih, equivalent to a bachelor's degree, for their advanced knowledge of Arabic language and literature, history, logic, and the ability to translate passages from the Quran. Still more advanced education is given at dav-ul-uluma, which are university-level postgraduate institutions that award Daurai Hadeeth—regarded as being the equivalent of a master's degree—indicating the candidate's specialization in the meaning and interpretation of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad.

At all levels of the traditional system of education, secular subjects such as math and science, essential for the functioning of modern societies, are not taken seriously, making the students, in the words of Maududi in his First Principles of the Islamic State (1960), "incapable of giving any lead to the people regarding modern political problems." Until the 1980s enrollment in these schools was limited because of the justified general perception that such an education did not help future employment prospects or pursuit of a profession. Therefore, there was an increasing trend until that point of time in favor of introducing "regular" subjects in the curriculum of the traditional schools.

In the 1980s President Zia-ul-Haq promoted the madrassahs, partly out of his personal conviction that instruction in such schools would help the people to behave as genuine followers of the Islamic faith and partly because such institutions helped him to mobilize support of the religious hierarchy and religion-based political parties for his rule. Their support was also valuable to him in the recruitment of soldiers for the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan. The number of madrassahs in the country grew rapidly, financed by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Iran as well as by affluent Pakistan industrialists and businessmen both at home and abroad. Part of the estimated $3.5 billion given by the United States and Saudi Arabia to Pakistan for assistance in the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan was diverted to Islamic education on the assumption that it would fuel the spirit of jihad against the Soviet Union. During that period, the efforts of the government to broaden the curriculum of the madrassahs failed because the religious heads refused to accept any suggestions for change on grounds that the government had no right to interfere in an education system fashioned twelve centuries ago by the Caliphate in Baghdad.

During the U.S.-supported war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, Pakistan played a crucial role not only as a conduit for U.S. arms to the Afghans but also in the military training Pakistan provided to the Afghans. In the 128 camps established for that purpose in Pakistan, mostly in the northwest, Zia's pro-Islamic government evoked the defense of Islam against the atheistic Soviets. Each camp had a large madrassah, where a heady mixture of the teachings of Islam and militancy was provided to the youth as the spirit of jihad. This led to the rise of the Taliban (literally, student) movement in Afghanistan. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, the Taliban and their trainers in Pakistan were elated by what they interpreted as a victory of Islam over a superpower. The Taliban was not disbanded; instead, it established itself over the years as the government of most of Afghanistan. It developed itself as the center of a global jihad for the propagation of alleged Islamic values, including denying women an education and role outside the home. It also became the focal point of opposition to "decadent" Western—more particularly, American—influence, and offered the Saudi terrorist millionaire Osama bin Laden refuge and assistance in establishing his headquarters in Afghanistan.

In the 1990s the madrassahs in Pakistan changed drastically in their purpose and curriculum content. The experience of training the Taliban militants had influenced the clerics and teachers in the madrassahs, whose numbers touched 8,000 by the year 2000. Robin Wright wrote in December 2000, "Most of the madrassahs are a byproduct of a crumbling state. More than a million youths are now enrolled in madrassahs because of Pakistan's deteriorating education system and the growing appeal of Islam." The impact of all this on terrorism in the region supported by Osama bin Laden led the U.S. government to ask Pakistan in 1999 and 2000 to clamp down on the terrorist groups and close a number of militant madrassahs.

The Modern Educational System: The modern educational system comprises the following five stages: The primary stage lasting five years, applicable to children from 5- to 9-years-old; a middle stage of three years for children 10- to 12-years-old, covering grades six through eight; a two-year secondary, or "matriculation" stage (grades nine and ten), for children 13- and 14-years-old; a two-year higher secondary, or "intermediate college," leading to an F.A. diploma in arts or F.S. in science; and a fifth stage covering college and university programs leading to baccalaureate, professional, and master's and doctorate degrees. The preprimary or preparatory classes, called kachi (literally, unripe) or nursery, were formally integrated into the education system in 1988.

The two major stages in the pre-university period are marked by primary and secondary schooling for 10 years leading up to the Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE), and an additional two years in higher secondary school or college leading to the Higher Secondary Certificate Examination (HSCE). The SSC and the HSC examinations are conducted by the Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education. It is the stage at which most of the brightest students take up medicine, engineering, pharmacy, dentistry, or architecture. There is a special public examination at the end of grade eight for those wishing to apply for government scholarships. The participation rate falls from 58 percent at the primary stage to 36 percent at the middle three-year stage, to 22.5 percent at the SSCE level, and to a precipitately low of 7.3 percent at the HSCE stage.

Those who prefer technical education enroll after SSCE into one of the "intermediate" colleges offering technical and vocational education, or they enroll in one of the numerous technical institutes run by provincial departments of education. A separate board examines students of technology and awards certificates to those who pass the examination.

While most students take the three-year course in college leading to the bachelor's degree, students aiming at a professional degree in medicine, engineering, architecture, or pharmacy join the appropriate professional colleges after the HSCE. The duration of study leading to the professional degrees varies. While the bachelor's degree in medicine (MBBS or Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery), requires five and one-half years including one year of internship, a degree in engineering, architecture, pharmacy, or veterinary medicine requires four years. The participating rate in the bachelor's degree or professional degree courses is a meager 2.8 percent.

Graduate education, known as "postgraduate" education, is available at the universities and some institutions of higher learning "deemed" to be universities. A master's degree would require two years, while the Ph.D., taken in almost all cases after the master's (theoretically an option exists to take it after the bachelor's), takes two to three years of additional work involving a thesis or doctoral dissertation.

Female Education: A major problem in education in Pakistan has been the low rate of female participation and the substantial disparity between males and females in educational achievement. In 1992, among all persons above 15 years of age, only 22 percent of females were literate as against 49 percent of males. United Nations sources show that in 1990 only 30 percent of primary school age girls were in school; only 13 percent were in secondary schools; and only 1.5 percent were in grades 9 and 10. The percentage was and is even lower in rural areas, where 67 percent of the population lives. It varies from province to province from 26 percent in Punjab to a deplorable low of only 2 percent in Baluchistan. Among the entire population of over 25, in 1992, females averaged a mere 0.7 year of schooling compared to an average of 2.9 years for males.

In order to understand the low numbers in education and employment for women, one must understand that gender status in Pakistan, as in some other Muslim societies, is based on two assumptions: that women are subordinate to men and that a family's honor depends on the activities of female members of the family. Therefore, such societies believe that women's mobility should be severely restricted by encouraging them not to go outside the home. Even for those who manage to obtain higher education, the colleges and universities are segregated by gender. In general, people consider a woman—and her family—to be "shameless" if no restrictions are placed on her mobility.

The movement for education among Muslim women on the subcontinent went hand in hand with the social and legal reform movement as well as the anticolonial nationalist movement against British rule. A number of prominent Muslim reformers of the nineteenth century tried their best to encourage female education, to enable greater freedom of movement among women, to eradicate or limit polygamy, and to guarantee women's rights under Islamic rule. Many of the graduates of the Anglo-Oriental College (later Aligarh Muslim University), founded by Sir Sayyid Ahmad, strove to improve the social status of women. Unfortunately, but for a few exceptions, their liberalism did not extend beyond advocating "cooking and sewing classes conducted in a religious framework to advance women's knowledge and skills and to reinforce Islamic values." It is no wonder that there was little progress in women's education before 1920.

As the nationalist movement progressed in the 1920s and 1930s, the issue of empowerment of women was linked to the independence of the subcontinent. A striking result of this was the enactment of the Muslim Personal Law in 1937, which improved the condition of women, particularly in regard to inheritance of property.

Since the birth of Pakistan, the changing status of women has been linked with the discourse about the role of Islam in a modern state, the extent to which civil rights are appropriate in an Islamic society, and how they could be reconciled with Islamic family values. Thanks to some elite women and liberal-minded men of the middle and upper classes in the new country, the Muslim Personal Law of Sharia was passed in 1948, giving women rights to inherit all forms of property. And although the women's movement failed to get the Charter of Women's Rights included in the 1956 constitution, it succeeded in getting the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance promulgated five years later. This confirmed women's rights to inheritance and improved their position in regard to marriage and divorce. During the first decade and a half following the independence of Pakistan, women's prospects looked fairly promising, including in the field of education.

Of significance to women's status in Pakistan were two significant movements in its neighborhood propelling the Pakistani society into two diametrically opposite directions. First was India, where the high status of women, on a level of equality with men, was guaranteed under the country's constitution of 1950 and implemented in politics and law ever since. The other was the rising tide of fundamentalism in post-Shah Iran and in Talibandominated Afghanistan, which has adversely affected the status of women and of female education in many countries of the Muslim world, including in Pakistan.

Major setbacks came during the decade-long conservative regime of President Zia-ul-Haq and his Islamization program, beginning in 1979. Several laws and ordinances were aimed at prejudicing women's position under the Muslim family law and the enjoyment of democratic rights. In 1986 a revision in Pakistan's Penal Code provided that "whoever by words, spoken or written, or by visible representation or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Prophet Muhammad shall be punished with death or imprisoned for life and shall be liable to fine." The law was used indiscriminately against anyone but more particularly against women and minorities.

Improvements in education, including female education, occurred during the brief first administration of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (December 1988-August 1990). The momentum continued during the next three administrations, indicating the people's rejection of Zia's Islamization program. Such steps were partly also the result of long-term pressures from international donors. In March 1990, the World Conference on Education for All met in Jomtien, Thailand. Prior to the conference, UNICEF, the UNDP, the World Bank, and UNESCO, the sponsors of the meeting, had declared "Education for All" as their top priority. They had impressed on Pakistan's bureaucrats and businessmen that their country would not make progress without a healthy, well-educated population. The developing countries meeting in Jomtien pledged to concentrate on providing universal education, including that of females. Thanks again to the continuing efforts of the world agencies and some of the participating countries at the conference, the heads of state and governments of nine large countries—Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan—met in New Delhi in November 1993. Representing three-quarters of the world's illiterate population and huge numbers of the world's outof-school children, they pledged to institute urgent and appropriate policies to promote education for all. Accordingly, in 1994 the Social Action Program, an expensive joint effort of the government and the donor agencies involving $8 billion to be spent over 5 years, was inaugurated in Pakistan.

The reason for the low rate of education among females is primarily attributed to religious and social conservatism, which inhibits the movement of girls outside the home. Research conducted by Pakistan's Ministry of Women's Development and by international agencies in the 1980s and early 1990s showed that "danger to women's honor" was the parents' most crucial concern. Moreover, except in major urban centers, women are not expected to work outside the home, and more often than not it is prohibited. Even in the cities, those who do not go on to higher education (and such numbers are very high) have few employment options. Increasingly, however, because of economic pressures and rising numbers of nuclear family units who do not have the benefit of the social insurance provided by traditional extended families, many more young women have taken up employment outside their homes, and their husbands have "acquiesced." In 1981 the census reported only 5.6 percent female employment; only 4 percent of all urban women held salaried jobs. By 1988 that figure had increased to 10.2 percent. In 2000, it was estimated that the female employment had risen to 13 percent.

The governments in Pakistan have generally been less than enthusiastic in augmenting employment options for women or in providing legal support for women's participation in the labor force. Therefore, a majority of women end up doing domestic chores or making or marketing handicrafts or embroidery products, figures for which are not entered into the labor statistics of the country. Officially, therefore, only 13 percent of women were shown as a part of the labor force. In fact, false notions of "propriety" induce families to conceal the extent of employment or work among women. All these factors—social and religious conservatism, restriction on the mobility of women, fear of "losing honor," perceived loss of dignity and status—have contributed to the widely held perception among parents in conservative urban families and generally in rural areas that the academic curriculum in schools is irrelevant to women's future roles as homemakers.

Preprimary & Primary Education

Preschool education up to the age of five mostly takes place in nurseries and kindergarten schools run by the private sector, some of them by Christian missionaries. The traditional practice of training a child at home while in the preprimary stage is increasingly giving way to preprimary schools, necessitated in urban areas in homes where both the parents are working or because the parents see the value of children learning social skills in situations away from the sheltered conditions of home. In 1988 the Seventh Five Year Plan integrated the preprimary classes into the formal system of education.

Despite the government's aim of making primary education universal among children aged five to nine, the participation rate has only a little more than one-third in that age group. In 1991 there were 87,545 primary schools, with an enrollment of 7.768 million students and a teacher-student ratio of 1:41. In the same year, there were 11,978 secondary schools, with an enrollment of 2,995,000 students and a teacher-student ratio of 1:19. Significant in this respect are the primary school dropout rates, which remained consistently high in the 1970s and 1980s at over 50 percent for boys and 60 percent for girls. Experts indicate that the middle school dropout rate, which had been relatively equal for both boys and girls at 14 percent in 1975, altered noticeably after President Zia's policy of Islamization affecting the boys (25 percent) more than the girls (16 percent). After Zia's death, there was a dramatic reversal: the dropout rate for boys plummeted to 7 percent while the rate for girls remained steady at 15 percent.

The generally low rate of student enrollment in primary schools is attributed to a variety of factors: a high rate of increase in population (over three percent) and, therefore, burgeoning numbers in the five to nine age group; lack of access to primary schools in rural areas, where one has sometimes to walk two or three miles to school, often in inclement weather; poor finances; unsafe school buildings; a high dropout rate due to poverty; and habitual teacher absenteeism. The reasons for the low rate of education among females is primarily attributed to religious and social conservatism, which inhibits the movement of girls away from home, and the generally perceived irrelevance of the curriculum to their future role as housewives.

Secondary Education

Following the primary education from ages 5 to 9 is the 3-year Middle School (sixth to eighth grades for children ages 10 to 12), a 2-year secondary school (ninth and tenth grades culminating in "matriculation") and higher secondary or "intermediate"—eleventh and twelfth grades). Some accounts, including official reports, include the post-primary Middle School as part of the "secondary" stage. On the other hand, some include the "Intermediate" or "Junior College" as part of the "secondary" distinguishing it as "higher secondary."

In 1991, there were 11,978 secondary schools with an enrollment of 2.995 million students and 154,802 teachers with a student-teacher ratio of 19:l. Because of the relatively low enrollment at the primary education level and high dropout rates at the Middle School (see the section on Preprimary & Primary Education), the Seventh and Eighth Five Year Plans substantially augmented allocations at the primary and Middle School levels. The government also sought to decentralize and democratize the design and implementation of the education strategy by giving the parents a greater voice in running school. It also took measures to transfer control of primary and secondary schools to nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs).

There is a major qualitative difference between government-run schools and "public" schools (public in the British usage, which means real exclusive, elite schools). These charge very high fees affordable only by the economically topmost level of the society, probably no more than five percent of the families, some of whom prefer to send their children to even more exclusive schools in the Western world, notably, Great Britain. Such "public" schools are mostly located in major cities and in the "hill stations" and attract children from the wealthy and the powerful including the higher levels of bureaucracy and the military. They generally prepare students for the Cambridge Examination, maintain excellent facilities including laboratories and computers and highly-trained teachers. Thanks to economic growth of the country including foreign trade, employment in multinationals and according to some, higher levels of corruption, the number of families which can afford the high fees of the "public" schools has been increasing since the 1960s. It is also considered a mark of high status to have one's children admitted to such schools because of the possibility that it may result in developing contacts which may be useful in their future careers. There are, therefore, tremendous pressures on such schools for admission. There were also "socialistic" pressures. In 1972, following the rise of Zulfikar Bhutto to power, some of these "public" schools were compelled to reserve one-fifth of their places for students on academic merit basis, thus helping the less affluent to get into such schools.

The bulk of the secondary schools come under the aegis of the Ministry of Education. They follow a common curriculum, imparting a general education in languages (English and Urdu ), Pakistan Studies, Islamiyat and one of the following groups: Science, "General" or Vocational. The Science group includes Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology; the "General" group includes Mathematics or Household Accounts or Home Economics, General Science and two general education courses out of some 40 options. The Vocational group provides choices from a list of commercial, agricultural, industrial or home economics courses. There are also "non-examination" courses such as Physical Exercise of 15-20 minutes daily and Training in Civil Defense, First Aid and Nursing for a minimum of 72 hours during grades 9 and 10.

The Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) taken at the end of the tenth grade is administered by the government's Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education. Admission to the "intermediate" colleges and Vocational schools is based on score obtained at the SSCE. The grading system is by "divisions" one to three. In order to be placed in the First Division, a student must score a minimum of 60 percent of the total of 1000 "marks;" those obtaining 45 to 59 percent are placed in the Second Division ; and those getting between 264 and 499 out of 1000 are placed in the Third Division, while below 264 are declared failed. For those accustomed to U.S. grading, these norms would appear low. Those in the First Division would compare favorably with A students in American schools.

Higher Education

At the time of its independence in 1947, the nascent nation of Pakistan had only one university, the University of Punjab. By 1997, the number of universities had risen to 35, of which 3 were federally administered and 22 were under the provincial governments, with a combined enrollment of 71,819 students. There were also 10 private universities. The universities are responsible for graduate (postgraduate) education leading to master's and doctoral degrees in a variety of fields. Most universities have their own faculty in the various departments but many use senior faculty from the colleges to participate in the teaching program at the master's level as well as for supervising students at the doctoral level. The trend is, however, to concentrate all postgraduate work in the university departments in order to maximize the benefits of teacher-student interaction on a daily basis. This has tended to limit the college faculty exclusively to undergraduate education, which serves as a disincentive for them to conduct higher-level research or writing.

Of the 10 private universities, eight were established after 1987. Some of them may be called "vanity" universities; they lack serious standards and were established to please major donors. Before long, they were able to exert pressure on the government, resulting in the government giving financial assistance to the private universities as well.

The universities play a crucial role in undergraduate and professional education, although the actual teaching is imparted by colleges. Colleges are affiliated to the universities, which, through the Boards of Studies in the various disciplines, prescribe the curriculum, conduct the final examinations, and award the baccalaureate degrees. Minimum qualifications for the recruitment and promotion of the college faculty as well as standards for the physical facilities such as classrooms, laboratories, and libraries are established by universities, which periodically send visitation teams to colleges. In 1997 there were 789 colleges with an enrollment of 830,000 preparing students for baccalaureate degrees in arts, sciences, and commerce in addition to 161 professional colleges with a total enrollment of 150,969 students in medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, engineering, architecture, and law.

The quality of education in colleges and most of the universities has come under much criticism. Undergraduate education rewards memorization and prompts students to apply their minds only to the study of "expected questions" that are sold or circulated by "experts," who speculate on the basis of questions in examinations of the previous three to five years. Students tend to rely more on examination-oriented textbooks and cheap "guides." The percentage of "marks" required to pass at most university-held examinations is 35 percent, requiring only 60 percent to be placed in the First Division. Since the paper-setters and examiners are anonymously appointed by the university, there is a lack of direct relevance to what is taught in the classroom, which accounts for large-scale student absenteeism and lack of respect for teachers.

Professional Education: The education in the professional colleges is decidedly superior. Only the very best students, often scoring more than 80 or 85 percent at the Higher Secondary Examination (twelfth grade or HSCE), are able to gain admission. It is these institutions that produce the doctors and engineers who migrate in droves to the Western world and perform so remarkably well in a competitive environment. Sometimes the percentage of professional graduates successfully moving to better pastures overseas, causing the so-called brain drain, is as high as 80 or 90, which accounts for the charge that countries like Pakistan basically end up training professionals for Western countries for a fraction of the cost and, therefore, deserve to be compensated or reimbursed for their expenses on professional education.

In the fields of engineering and technology, Pakistan has 7 universities/colleges of engineering. There are 9 colleges of technology and 26 polytechnics (of which 19 are for males and 7 for females). Their curriculum, faculty, and physical facilities do not compare favorably with those in engineering colleges/universities. Most of them give short-term courses leading to diplomas instead of degrees.

As for the universities, critics allege that they are not able to attract the best minds to join their faculty. The lure of high-level government service, lucrative employment in multinational corporations in Pakistan, or jobs overseas leaves a much smaller pool of genuine talent for the universities, which, moreover, lack the facilities and ambience for quality research. Due to such a multiplicity of adverse factors, the universities are often unable to fill all their faculty positions. As Tariq Rahman of the National Institute of Pakistan Studies, lamented in 1998:

The Quaid-I-Azam University of Islamabad, meant to be a premier institution when established in 1967, does not have many subjects thought essential to a university—linguistics, sociology, philosophy, political science, astronomy, cognitive sciences, archaeology, literature, and so on. The libraries are substandard, with very few journals—even such basic facilities as fax, e-mail, photocopying machines, computers, and microfiche readers are either missing or are in short supply. Thus, to begin with, universities do not get the best human material. In addition, no incentives are offered for improvement. For all practical purposes, once one is hired one is not removed—at least for academic incompetence.

In 1979, following the publication of the National Education Policy in Pakistan, universities followed the U.S. example and adopted the semester system. The semester system continues in the Quaid-I-Azam University and a few departments of some other universities, but by and large it has been abandoned. Students tended to take what are termed in the U.S. as "mickey mouse" courses in order to obtain better grades with very little effort. The semester system involved frequent tests and hard work, and one's grade depended very much on the instructor, who gave a certain percentage of marks for classroom participation and performance on the periodic tests. Faced with growing social and political pressure to give better grades, the system collapsed.

Administration, Finance, & Educational Research

Throughout the history of Pakistan, at least until the 1990s, relatively limited resources were allocated to education. In 1960, the public expenditure on education was only 1.1 percent of GNP; by 1990, the figure had risen to 3.4 percent, though it compared quite unfavorably with expenditures on defense, which stood at 33.9 percent of GNP in 1993. In 1990 Pakistan was tied for fourth place in the world in the ratio of military expenditure to health and education expenditures.

Education at all levels falls primarily under the jurisdiction of the provincial governments. However, the federal government has, throughout the history of Pakistan, taken a leadership role in devising a national policy of education and research. Moreover, all universities, centers of excellence, and area study centers are funded by the federal government through the University Grants Commission. The educational institutions of all levels located in the "federal territory" are administered by the federal government.

The federal Ministry of Education is headed by the minister of education, assisted by the education secretary, who is a senior member of the bureaucracy. The provincial education departments are likewise headed by the education ministers assisted by education secretaries in charge of separate divisions such as primary, secondary, vocational, and higher education. The provinces are divided into regions and districts for administrative purposes. Primary education at the district level is administered by a district education officer, while secondary education is headed in each region by a regional director. The colleges in each province are under the administrative control of a Directorate of Education located in the provincial capital.

The three federal public universities are headed ex-officio by the President of Pakistan, while the provincial universities, following the colonial precedent, have the provincial governor as ex-officio chancellor of all universities in the province. The day-to-day administration is headed by the vice chancellor, appointed by the chancellor from a short list approved by the University's Syndicate or Executive Council and the minister of education of the province. In practice, the bureaucrats in the Education Department wield considerable influence, both through manipulation of the names submitted to the chancellor as well as through an official from the ministry appointed to "advise" the Chancellor on the various matters referred to him by the vice chancellors of the universities in the province.

Each university has an Academic Senate, whose membership, unlike that of Western universities, which limit it only to faculty, is drawn from principals of colleges, heads of professional colleges, elected heads of faculties, elected representatives of alumni graduates, heads of university departments (ex-officio), and representatives of the Ministry of Education, Chamber of Commerce, trade unions etc. Purely academic matters such as appointment of search committees for recruitment of faculty and of Ph.D. "guides" and endorsement of changes in curriculum and of suggested names of paper-setters and examiners for the university-held examinations after their prior approval by Boards of Studies are the charge of the Academic Council. It consists of deans, department heads, and representatives of teaching staff. Both the Senate and the Academic Council meetings are chaired by the vice chancellor. A Board of Studies for each discipline consists of an elected chairperson and members drawn from the heads of the corresponding department in the affiliated colleges. Changes in syllabus in a particular discipline are first discussed and approved by the respective Board of Studies, which also draws up a list of paper-setters and examiners and submits it to the dean of the faculty concerned for presentation to the Academic Council. Presiding over the university bureaucracy is the registrar, who works closely with the vice chancellor.

The regular or "current" expenditure on faculty and staff salaries, laboratories, and libraries in provincial universities is met through tuition fees (which often cover less than five to seven percent of the total expenditure) and government grants from the provincial and federal governments on an almost fifty-fifty basis. Since 1974, federal grants are funneled through the University Grants Commission (UGC), which often funds capital expenditures on physical plant such as buildings, major additions to laboratories or libraries, research and travel grants to faculty, and innovative additions to the curriculum. The dependence of the university administrations on three bureaucracies—state, federal, and UGC—have stultified creativity and bred a measure of irresponsibility. To quote from a World Bank Report of 1990:

This divorce of administrative from financial responsibility means that neither federal nor provincial, nor university authorities can be held to account for the overall management of the university system. Especially in an environment where tough decisions are required, nothing significant can be accomplished to improve the universities until this duality of management control is ended.

There has been no change in the system since publication of the World Bank Report.

Nonformal Education

The foremost institution for reduction of adult illiteracy and opportunity for those who cannot afford to join regular academic institutions has been the People's Open University, founded in 1974 and renamed Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) in 1977. It provides nonformal learning and distance education ranging from minimum literacy all the way to the award of baccalaureate, master's, M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees. A student enrolled in AIOU is taught "with the help of printed course books, media programs and tutorials," completes the assignments according to the schedule laid down by the Open University, and takes a final examination administered by it.

In 1998-99 the AIOU offered 204 different courses, mainly in the humanities, social sciences, Arabic, Pakistan studies, Islamic studies, women's education, home economics, teacher education, technical education, and business management to 907,834 students who could not leave their homes or jobs but had a desire to learn and improve their lives. The AIOU ran programs in 30 cities, and through the use of "appropriate media mix and latest electronic communication techniques," its experts—105 regular faculty and 2,500 part-time tutors—reached out to students scattered all over the country. AIOU operates on the semester system, April to September and October to March.

In late 2000 the AIOU took a major initiative in the field of computer education. It signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S.-based Oracle Corporation of the U.S. whereby the AIOU will offer low-cost training in Oracle software through its existing facilities in 30 cities all over Pakistan. The AIOU already runs BCS, BCS Honours, MCD, and PGD programs. The addition of Oracle will help it to boost its computer training nationwide.

There were 285 vocational institutions with an enrollment of 12,113 in 1988-89. They were administered by the federal Ministry of Labor, Manpower, and Overseas Pakistanis as well as by the departments of labor of the provincial governments. Part of the economic rationale for these institutions, which produced skilled workers such as plumbers, carpenters, welders, machinists, masons, electricians, etc., was the growing demand for such labor from the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia. There are separate vocational training institutions for females in shorthand and typing, sewing and cutting, embroidery, knitting, handicrafts, leatherwork and woodwork, and food preservation, only some of which were related to labor demand from the Gulf states. Additionally, there are other government agencies such as the Directorate of Social Welfare, the Small Industries Corporation, the Directorate of Agriculture, the Directorate of Mineral Development, and NGOs such as The Overseas Pakistanis Foundation, which also funded and/or operated vocational training institutions. In 1988-89 these numbered 2,924 with an enrollment of 92,737, far larger than those under the Labor Departments or the Ministry of Labor.

Teaching Profession

The teaching profession, by and large, does not attract the best talent in Pakistan. Those considered bright either join the professions such as medicine and engineering and try to migrate to the West or are attracted by higher-level civil service positions, which open avenues for enormous graft and corruption. A few exceptions would be some highly respected university faculty and those scientists working at the highest levels of the country's research establishment, especially those involved in missile and nuclear technology.

Among the reasons for the reluctance to join the teaching profession at the primary and secondary levels are relatively low salaries, unattractive working conditions, and the high teacher-student ratio, which is around 1:40 at the primary and 1:36 at the secondary level. In the early 1990s there were 87 elementary teacher-training institutions offering a one-year program leading to the Primary Teaching Certificate (PTC) for teachers in grades one to five or the Certificate of Teaching (CT) for teachers in grades six to eight. While the PTC course needs 10 years of education for admission to it, the CT course requires 12 years and an FA/FSC certificate. The Allama Iqbal Open University also offers distance education courses for its PTC and CT programs.

There are three types of programs for training of teachers in Pakistan. The first is the one-year primary school teacher-training program in basic subjects and methods of teaching, including child psychology. The secondary school teachers are required to join one of the numerous teachers' training colleges or a university department of education either for a one-year program leading to the Bachelor of Education diploma or a three-year program leading to a Bachelor of Education degree. The admission to either program requires a bachelor's or master's degree in any discipline from any university. The higher-level work leading to degrees in education at the master's or the doctorate level is done in the departments of education in the universities, which produce specialists as well as academic administrators. There are also several in-service training programs for "untrained" teachers or for upgrading the curriculum. Teachers sent to such programs are nominated by the school principals and approved by the district officer and generally receive full salary during the in-service training.

Science and technical teaching has been given special emphasis by the federal government. Thus, Islamabad's Institute for the Promotion of Science Education and Training (IPSET) and National Technical Teachers Training College (NTTTC) have been doing excellent work in upgrading the knowledge base of secondary school and junior college science teachers as well as instructors in technology colleges and polytechnics. For educational administrators there is the Academy of Educational Planning and Management (AEPAM) at Islamabad, providing courses and in-service training for school and college principals, district education officers, and regional directors.

There are few facilities in Pakistan for special education. The first to start courses leading to a master's degree in special education were the University of Karachi, the National Institute for the Handicapped at the University of Islamabad (NIHUS), and the Allama Iqbal Open University. With the establishment of the office of Director-General of Special Education within the Ministry of Health, Social Welfare, and Special Education in 1985, special education attracted a national focus. In 1989 NIHUS received a major boost with the opening of 45 centers for special education with a combined enrollment of 3,500. Additionally, a National Training Center for the Disabled and a national Mobility and Independence Training Center for producing teachers in special education were established in Islamabad. Most of these projects were made possible with funds, overseas training, and technical guidance from WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, and UNDP. Programs were instituted for training fellowships abroad as well as for visits by experts from Europe and the United States.

Summary

At the dawn of the new millennium, Pakistan's educational establishment had reason to be proud of its academic architecture, which in a span of a little over a half century since the country's birth had grown exponentially in the number of universities, colleges, and schools and in student enrollment. Its weak points are the less than adequate opportunities to women for education and employment. Pakistan has been infected by Islamic fundamentalism since the late 1970s, and it has adversely affected the role of women in its society. It stands contrary to the wishes of its erudite founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who said to his Muslim brethren in 1940: "No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you; we are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live."

The other threat that portends to be deadly for education arises out of overemphasis on religion and may lead to the collapse of the edifice of education so assiduously constructed in Pakistan. Militant Islam has appealed to the youth of Pakistan in the same manner as in neighboring Afghanistan. The values of the Taliban have dictated the curriculum in Pakistan's madrassahs since the 1990s. Hopefully, this is a passing phase that will not hinder the march of the country to a glorious intellectual and material future for its men—and its women.

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—D. R. SarDesai