Educational Apartheid

Of all the ills that plague Pakistan's educational system--and there are
many--none is more virulent than the curse of educational apartheid. And
yet, one can confidently predict that not only with the
soon-to-be-announced educational policy not address this issue, it will not
even be mentioned.

The defining principle of Pakistan's education system is a simple and
familiar one: "Idhar hum, udhar tum!" (Us here, you there!). It is a
stratified system of social and economic prejudice: A system that offers a
quality education to the selected few and an abysmal alternative to the
neglected many. It is designed to ensure that those of us who were born
privileged--or have become so through hard work, good luck, or sheer
thievery--will pass on to our children the same unfair advantage that we
enjoyed and that has enabled us to hold on to those privileges. If the
remaining 95% of the country are condemned to second rate existence just so
that we and our children can continue to bask in the undeserved successes
that we assume to be our birthright, then so be it!

In essence, it is a system that tells the unborn generations of Pakistanis
that while all children are born equal in the eyes of God, some will be
treated as more equal than others by our educational system. Despite all
the forced doses of Islamiat in our curricula, the defining essence of
Pakistan's educational policy continues to be based on a caste system. The
type of social and economic segregation that defined the Brahmin as being
superior to the untouchable Harajin may now be on the decline in Hindu
India but is alive and thriving in Muslim Pakistan.

Ironically, it is nowhere more alive or more thriving than in our
educational institutions. Those who are born privileged enough to be
allowed into an Aitchison College in Lahore, a Karachi Grammar School, or
the multitude of private elite schools like Beaconhouse or Froebels are the
Brahmins of Pakistan. Following on their heels is the next tier of our new
social caste--people whose children can go to the slightly less
prestigious, but equally elite and invariably English-medium schools (most
of them government-run). Between them, this group comprises no more than
five percent of society.

The bulk of those who do go to school are condemned to attend
government-run Urdu-medium schools, most of which are chronically plagued
with poor staff and worse facilities. About half never make it beyond five
years of schooling; about half of the remaining do not make it beyond
Matric; most of the remainder stop at the Intermediate level. The
brightest and luckiest do make it to the University level and a few even go
on to break the caste barrier--by becoming a doctor, engineer, CSP officer,
etc.--and thereby transcending into the elite class. However, as soon as
they do so they acquire the indulgences of the elites including the vested
interest of maintaining the system of educational apartheid intact.

An even bigger group does not even have the option of Urdu-medium schools.
Some end up in Madrassas; the majority joins the workforce. You will see
them as 'chootas' at tea stalls, as apprentices in mechanic shops, and as
domestic help in your houses.

While there are many manifestations of apartheid in Pakistan, its most
poignant exemplar is the differentiation between English and Urdu medium
schools. It is a system that, true to its original design, produces two
distinct sets of citizens--future rulers and future subjects. Starting
from a deliberately unleveled playing field, it is no surprise that those
from the first camp overwhelmingly come ahead. A few from the later
occasionally make it to the top, but only after facing much hardships and
after embracing the rules of the elites--in essence, becoming "English
medium" by default.

It is a criminal injustice that the feet of 95% of the population are tied
simply so that the remaining 5% can win the race. As a result, the country
is robbed of its best minds. Intelligence, after all, is not restricted to
any one class or caste. The system of apartheid as now instituted forces
the best minds from the elites to end up abroad while even as the rest of
the population is restrained from reaching its potentialities. Those who
could have been physicists end up as mechanics; potential economists end up
running tea-stalls; potential poets end up polishing the shoes of some
spoiled brat!

The problem of educational apartheid is a complex one, but the solution is
very simple--though exceedingly difficult. It entails replacing the
multiple systems that are currently in place with one unified system.
There are those who will try to confuse the issue by making it a debate
about which language should be the medium of instruction. That is NOT the
issue. The issue is about leveling the playing field and providing the
same educational opportunity to all our children. Until we do that we will
never be able to reap the full potential of our talent. We will be
condemned to the continuing servitude of a self-proclaimed and
self-consumed elite.

Of course, for those of us who are from this 'elite' (and if you are
reading this article, you probably are) educational apartheid is just fine.
The conspiracy of silence that has existed on this issue for fifty years
is likely to perpetuate for another fifty. After all, it is not in the
interest of the ruling elites--you and me--to do anything about an unjust
system that has been so instrumental in allowing us to unfairly acquire our
positions of power and prestige. That their palaces of menial success are
built on the decaying carcasses of the shattered hopes of the multitudes is
a price that the so-called 'intelligencia' has always been prepared to pay
for selfishly holding on to the unfair advantage that made them the
'intellegentia' in the first place.