Banners Unfurled A Critical Analysis of Developments in Education in Pakistan

Banners Unfurled A Critical Analysis of Developments in Education in Pakistan

বিশেষ দ্রষ্টব্যঃ কপিরাইট সমস্যা যাতে না হয় সেকারণে সকল লেখা শুধুমাত্র ‘only Readable’, ‘non-downloadable’ ও ‘non-clickable’ রাখা হয়েছে। সংগ্রামের নোটবুকের সকল নথি-পত্রিকা-দলিল-সংকলন-বই থেকে নেয়া তথ্য-ছবি-ভিডিও শুধুমাত্র গবেষণার কাজে ব্যবহার্য। বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা সংগ্রাম ও মুক্তিযুদ্ধ গবেষণার জন্য সংগ্রামের নোটবুক একটি অলাভজনক অবাণিজ্যিক স্বেচ্ছাশ্রমে গড়া প্রচেষ্টা।

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I gratefully acknowledge the assistance I have received from the staffs of the libraries of the Institute of Educatin School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London the London School of Economics, the British Museum and its Newspaper Library at Colindale, and the Library of the Commonwealth Institute.
I am also indebted to Mr. Abdul Qayyum, Counsellor, Press and Public Relations Section, Pakistan Embassy. London, for making available to me various Government reports, documents and publications relevant to my subject.
I am greatly obliged to the late Dr. Mahmud Husain. Vice Chancellor, University of Karachi, who took the trouble of going through my manuscript, writing a Foreword and giving me valuable suggestions which I have incorporated in this book.
My thanks are also due to my friend, Miss Anita Ghulam Ali, President, Pakistan College Teachers’ Association (Sind), who kept me informed, during may stay abroad, of her Association’s untiring work for the welfare of the teaching community, and who supplied me various documents and statistics needed for my work.
I must express my gratitude to my Research Supervisor, Dr. K.C. Mukherji of the Institute of Education, University of London, who, with his penetrating and intimate knowledge of the problems of South Asia, has guided and helped me at every step.
I am also grateful to the Royal Book Company for their keen interest in this book and the excellent arrangements they have made for its publication.

S. Z

FOREWORD
Problems of higher education in Pakistan are many and varied. Amongst them student unrest occupies a pivotal position. Literature on the subject is scanty. Mrs. Umme Salma Zaman, already well known for her contribution to the educational development of the country as Principal for many years of one of the leading colleges of female education in Karachi, has brought out this book which was originally entitled “A Critical Analysis of the Problems of Higher Education in Pakistan since Independence (1947) with Special Reference to Student Unrest”, and was submitted as a thesis for the degree of M. Phil (Education) at the University of London in 1972. It has since been revised for publication under the present title of “Banners Unfurled”.
Among various aspects of education discussed in this book are the historical background; the economic, geographical and religious factors having a bearing on the system of education, the impact of new technology : the effects of multi-lingualism and political instability; the shortcomings of educational planning; and the role of bureaucracy in the field of education. The political history of the period has been touched upon, particularly in relation to Student Unrest, such as the celebration of the “Decade of Reform” by the Ayub Regime followed by a wave of student unrest culminating in the overthrow of he regime and the imposition of the Second Martial under Gen. Yahya Khan. The author has also some very pertinent remarks to make on the relationship between student unrest in Pakistan and the global student unrest.

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Although we in Pakistan, in spite of experiencing much student unrest possess little literature on the student elsewhere a good deal has been written on it. This is not unexpected. We are some what lethargic in dealing Scientifically with our problems and many of the questions relating to Pakistan have first attracted the attention of foreign scholars. For more than a decade student unrest has been a challenge to the Educational System of many of the most advanced countries of the world. The idea that it was the phenomenon peculiar to the developing countries does not hold good any more after what happened at the Universities in the U.S.A., France, and West Germany. Even the U.K. did not remain unaffected by the wave of student unrest.
Student unrest may be a common feature of educational life in both the advanced and developing countries of the world, but the causes are not identical because conditions , not the same. In developiug countries the frustrations and disappointments of youth which create in them the rebellious spirit are not quite the same as those which influence the youth of the developed world.
This publication is to be welcomed for more than one reason. Just as in other spheres of life so in education identification and analysis of problems is necessary before an attempt can be made at their solution. Mrs. Salma Zaman has provided a critical and exhaustive analysis. The value of the work increases when one finds this analysis made by a person who, as the head of an institution, had to deal with it as a reality. She has not tried merely to philosophize. She has learnt not only from what has been written on the subject but also from experience, and she speaks with the knowledge that comes only from experience. Thus inmy opinion this work is an interesting, useful and, what I would like to term, an authoritative statement of the problem. It is to be reckoned as a sound piece of research on the subject.
November 5, 1974.
MAHMUD HUSAIN
Vice Chancellor
University of Karachi.

1
STUDENT UNREST
Problem of student unrest is intimatelely connected with the system of education and has its roots in the historical background of a country. The Pakistani students have inherited some of their restive characteristics from the movement for independence, when, together with the political leaders of all shades of opinion, they had formed the vanguard of the struggle for Independence by boycotting classes and coming out in the streets demonstrating and protesting against alien rule. After the achievement of Independence in 1947, there was a relative calm in student activism. But the economic and social deprivations to which the newly independent society was subjected, aroused student awareness and brought them in confrontation with the authorities.
During the last there decades (1950-1980) student unrest has become a common feature of University Campuses oll over the world. Since the end of the second world war, students are becoming increasingly conscious of their inherent capabilities and responsibilies. The University is no more an ivory tower beyond the reach of the ordinary people and consecrated to the pursuit of learning for its own sake. Academic truth is linked up with the socio-economic needs of society, to produce, in Wordsworth’s words, “type of the wise who soar but never roam.”
According to a United Nations Study of Youth Problems

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the organisation of a National Cadet Crops which trains studnent in the history of Pakistan movement, gives military training and tries to channellise their energies in school welfare projects. This programme needs to be furfurrther systematised and expanded in order to produce the desired result.
Problems that the country faces today are stilstill ststupendous,but the will to overcome them is equally great and there is no reason why they should not be solved with hope and determination of all concerned. Experience is the best teacher and the Pakistani people have gone through bitter experiee during the last 32 years of their existence. They have learnt their lesson the hard way and hence may be expected to benefit from it.

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2
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Pakistan achieved its Independence at midnight August 14/15 1947. It was a new State on the map of the world, comprising the North-Western and North-Eastern provinces of the Indian sub-continent the Provinces of Sind, Baluchistan, North West Frontier Province and West Punjab in the West, and the Provinces of East Bengal and a portion of Assam (Sylhet) in the East. The Provinces of Punjab and Bengal were divided into East and West Punjab and East and West Bengal.
It had a total area of 365,5291 sq. miles divided into 310, 403 sq. miles or 85% in the West and 55,126 sq. miles or 15% in the East. Its total population according to the census of 1961 was 93.7 million, with 50-3 million in its Eastern Wing and 42.9 million in its Western Wing 2 Thus the Eastern Wing, with about one-sixth the area of the country, was more thickly populated than the Western Wing. The two wings lay about 1,000 miles from each other, with an alien territory in between. Independence was the climax of several decades of prolonged political struggle of the people of the sub-continent to free themselves from the yoke of about 200 years and British Rule.
Some of the areas in Pakistan were, economically and

………………………………
1. Pakistan Year Book-1969 p. 13.
2. The First Five Year Plan (1955-60), Government of Pakistan, 1952, p. 189.

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socially, the most backward areas of the sub-continent. They were the predominantly Muslim majority areas. The Muslims who were the ruling people until the British came in, had not co-operated with the new rulers. They had remined sulky aloof and resentful and had refused to take to western education and learning introduced by the British. The were consequently denied important offices of administration and education. It was Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, a great scholar and reformer, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century who started a campaign to popularise western education among theMuslims,s
an act for which he did not carn much approbation from the dichards of his generation. But, in duc course of time, his unbending persistence and logical persuasion won his friends. He managed to change the attitudes of some and gradually people started sending their children to the government-managed English schools and specially to the new recidential school and college started by him at Aligarh in 1875.3
Sir Syed had hoped that the English education would enable Muslims to compete effectively for Government jobs and would also enlighten them and make them more conscious of their duties to their community, but attitudes and habits of mind die hard. In the race for progress and enlightenment. They had started late and their speed was slow. English education could reach only the higher strata of society; the masses remained untouched by it, so that at the time of Independence, the Muslims lagged behind other communities in every walk of life-in education, trade and commerce, administration and in political leadership.4
Even in the provinces where they were in the majority, they remained in the background of social and political life. In the North-Western parts of India, and the Punjab and Sind, the Hindus, Christians and the Parsis were the advanced communities. They were traders, money-lenders, educationists and administators, while Muslims were the peasants. In East Bengal also, Hindus were the landowners and, despite the greater
…………………
3. Mohammadan Anglo-Orintal College (M.A.O. College), leter the Aligarh Muslim University.
4. K.B. Sayeed: the political………..

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concentration of Muslims in the population, the professsional classes consisted mostly of Hindus. The Muslims were, by and large, illiterate and poor.
At the time of Independence the economy of Pakistan was dominantly agricultural, with about 85% of the population* working in the fields. The system of production, transportaion, trade and consumption yielded a very low standard of living and most of the people lived al or barely above subsistence level, with little opportunities for education or economic advancement. Agricultural methods were for the most part, primitive, and the average yields were among the lowest in the worlds.5 Industry was almost non-existent. Financial institutions to provide credit, collect the savings and to channel them into productive investments, were rudimentary. The social services education, health, housing and welfare were limited in quality as well as in quantity.
The people living in villages were virtually untouched by the scientific and social advances of the past two centuries. The numerous problems of this rudimentary economy were further complicated as a result of the Partition and the dislocation coming in its wake.5
Independence of the sub-continent did not come with a happy flourish of trumpets. It was accompanied by a great conflagration of communal riots on both sides of the frontier. Ian Stephens calls it the “appalling blood-soaked partition” of the country in which “about 500,000 persons died and about 14,000,000 had to migrate.? Another historian, describing the unprecedented carnage and bloodshed, writes that besides those who died and fled, about “100,000 young girls were kidnapped and how many people were injured or suffered in other ways, is beyond computation.” Both sidecrammedequally guilty. Trains arrived at Lahore Station crammed
……………………………………………
* The First-Five Year Plan, p. 539.
5. Wheat 10.1 maunds per acre and Rice 10.6 maunds per acre in 1947.48
6. First Five Year Plan (1935-1960) p. 7.

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Boards of studies, the Selection Board for the appointment of the Staff, the Committee for Advanced Study and Research the Finance Committee, and the Planning and Development Committee. There was also an Inter-University Board, a body of Vice-Chancellors and other members of all the universities, to bring about national uniformity and a high acedemic standard and to perform co-ordinate and corporate function. 49
Finances : Upto 70% of the expenditure of each university was met by the public funds. Almost all the universities have built their new campuses over an area of about 1,000 acres each. The Third Plan allocated over Rs. 200 million for construction work alone in eight of these universities. In the general universities there were often seven facule and up to 25 departments. They provided courses in arts, social science,medicine, law, engineering and agriculture. They also offered higher research degrees such as Ph.D, LL.D, F.Litt, D.Sc., etc.
Professional Education besides being given in the general universities, was provided in the four specialised university of Agriculture, and Engineering and Technology.
Agricultural colleges, colleges of engineering. law, commerce, public and business administration, medicine and education, were all affiliated to the universities–some of thes being autonomous institutions, giving their own degrees.
There were Two Institutes of Education for higher studies and research in education-one cach at Dacca and Lahore. Colleges for Physical Education were also established to train teachers of physical education for schools and colleges.
Specialised, professional colleges of Home Economics were established in both the wings providing education up to the Masters Degree. All these institutions were affiliated to the university and were guided by the rules and regulations of the university.
………………………………………
49. Pakistan : 1967, p. 418.
50. Ibid p. 418.

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The refugees who left Pakistan were mainly townspeople engaged in trade, business and money-lending. The mass departure of non-Muslims created a sudden void in many vital fields. Banks, Insurance Companies, and manufacturing and commercial firms were crippled…… Technical institutions, school, colleges and universities underwent a similar dislocation due to the sudden departure of Hindu teachers and instructors, who had made up their staff.12
The unplanned population exchange caused many difficulties in that it removed qualified people needed for Pakistan’s economy and added large numbers of homeless refugees, discribed by Ian Stephens as “the human debris of the 1947 catastrophe. “13
Educational Background:
In his opening address to the Joint Conference of the Advisory Board of Education, the Inter-University Board and the Council of Technical Education at Karachi in December 1951. the Central Minister of Education, Mr. Fazlur Rahman, disclosed that in 1946 (a year before Partition), there were in the territories constituting Pakistan, 83 colleges, 4 teacher-training colleges, 3 commerce colleges, 3 engineering colleges, 108 teacher-training schools and 71 technical, industrial and agricultural institutions.
Out of the 21 universities which existed in India, only three universities in Punjab, Dacca and Sind, remained in the territories constituting Pakistan.14 Of these, Sind University existed more or less on paper as it had been authorised only in March, 1947, five months before Independence and had not
actually started functioning when the country became independent.
For a population of 70,000,000 in Pakistan Provinces,
……………………………………….
12. Ibid p. 7.
13. Jan Stephens : Pakistan, p. 57.
14. Fazlur Rahman : Proceedings of the Educational Conference, Karachi, 4th & 5th December, 1951, pp. 4, 5.

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According to the census of 1941, there were only 38675 Primary Schools and 8,840 Secondary Schools.
Most of these educational institutions run and managed by non-Muslims constituting were in a state of chate at the time of Independence.
The educational state of the Provinces of Pakistan can be judged by the following facts.
1. Sind :
The Province had no university of its own until march, 1947. Its institutions were affiliated to the University of Bombay. It had 5 colleges, 45 high schools and 124 middle schools, according to the Annual Report of Education, 1940.15 The Report mentioned that Muslims costituted the bulk of the total population of the Province……72% according to the census of 1931.16
But their number in educational institutions was very low. The percentage of illiteracy among the males was 87 and among the females, it was 98 only six years before Independence.17
Commenting on the educational backwardness of the Muslims and the indifference of the wealthy towards the cause of education, the Report remarked :
“There are many rich Muslim Zamindars and Jagirdars, each of whom could run a first class high school, but alas : few of them have the spirit of the late Khan Bahadur Hasanally Effendi, and the late Khan Bahadur Mir Ghulam Mohammed and the late Mr. Noor Mohammed.18
2. Punjab :
Punjab was, by comparision, the most advanced Province of the areas constituting Pakistan. Although it had
………………….,……………………….
15. Annual Report on Education (1939-40) p. 27.
16. Ibid p. 36.
17. Ibid p. 14.
18. Ibid : Reference to some well-known educationists of Sind.
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Only one university, which had been established in 1882, it had some tradition of education. There were 35 colleges, including professional colleges affiliated to it, but postgraduate work could be done only in Lahore. The affiliated colleges were dispersed over the vast areas of Baluchistan, Bahawalpur and the North-West Frontier Province.19 Therefore it was difficult for the University of Lahore to keep proper control over them.
3. East Bengal :
Before Independence, Secondary and collegiate education in all areas except that of Dacca city, was controlled by Calcutta University. After Independence, the whole picture was suddenly changed. The University of Dacca had been a residential and teaching University without powers of affiliation. A special Ordinance had to be promulgated giving it powers of affiliation and control over collegiate and professional education. A new Board of Education was also created to look after Secondary education.
The number of educational institutions were as follows:
University-1 established in 1921 of Dacca.
Colleges-55 including Arts, Science & Professional colleges.
High Schools for Boys 1120
High Schools for Girls 62
Middle School for Boys 1,784
Middle School for Girls 187
Primary Schools for Boys 24,579
Primary Schools for Girls 4,778
Most of these institutions were privately managed and some were aided by the Government.20 All of them suffered on account of the mass exodus of the Hindus.
…………………………… ………….
19. Education: Pakistan Bulletin, 1954 No. 2 (U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare) p. 54.
20. Pakistan: East Bengal, Annual Reports 1947-40, East Bengal Government Press, Dacca, 1951.

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4. North-West Frontier Province-tribal Area)
Universities-Nil
Colleges -Nil
High Schools (for Boys only)- 2
Middle Schools-12
Primary Schools -11921
5. Baluchistan :
Universities-Nil
Degree College-Nil
Intermediat College –
High Schools
Middle Schools-10
Primary Schools-10222
Thus, Pakistan started with a big handicap in the field of education as in all other activities of life.
Resettling of refugees itself was a big problem. A larga majority of them was concentrated in the few big cities–Lahore, Hyderabad, Karachi and Dacca. “Lahore looked very much like blitzed London for West Punjab was the first province to face the full impact of the millions of rerefugees”. I write an observer.23
Karachi had suddenly changed from the quiet capital of a small undeveloped Province (Sind) to the Federal Capital of Pakistan, as well as a budding centre of commerce, trade and industry. Its population had suddenly increased from three lakhs (3,00,000) before Independence to about six lakhs (6,00,000) within the first few years of Partition.24 Housing,
………………………………………………..
21. Proceedings of Second Educational Conference, 1951, p. 5.
22. Ibid, p. 5.
23. K.B. Sayeed : The Political System of Pakistan, p. 603.
24. Social Characteristics of the people of Karachi. p. 105. (Pakistan Institute of Development Economics) 1965.

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Health and educational agencies could not cope with this sudden explosion of population. There were not enough schools and colleges to absorb all the aspirants for admission, and those which existed did not have staff or equipment or even modernaccommodation. Most of the educational institutions in Pakistan admitted the Central Minister of Education,’ were owned and managed by non-Muslims whose exodus to India ddeprived them of financial support. These institutions had to be rehabilitated. Similarly, the majority of the teachers were non muslims whose migration to India created big gaps which had to be filled. “This task of rehabilitation imposed a severe strain on the Central and Provincial Governments.25
A whole new structure of education had to be framed. The problem was not only the presence of a large number of students eager to get an education at all costs, but also the growing desire of an ever-increasing number of young people to get more and more education at every level. Adam Curle calls this enthusiasm among developing nations, “the concrete expression of a revolutionary mood which had been smoulde-ring for many years, in some parts of the world, notably India, but which has fanned into an irresistible blaze in the immediate post-war period. After independence, the humblest could at least in theory, become the greatest. It was apparent to all that the various levels and examinations of the school system were the rungs of the upward ladder. Education became the symbol of freedom and the focus of hope and it spread widely through the instrument of such agencies as UNESCO.26
For a country as poorly educated as Pakistan, where the percentage of literacy was hardly 13-8 at the time of its first census in 1951,27 this popular awakening could have bewhichgarded as a hopeful sign. But in the circumstances in which
……………………………………….
25. Fazlur Rahman: Proceedings of Educational Conference : 1951. p. 5.
26. Adam Curle: Political Implications of Educational Explosion in Developing Countries. The World Year Book of Education, 1965, p. 175.
27. Education in Pakistan : Bulletin 1954 No. 2 (U.S. Dep. of Health, Education & Welfare) p. 54.

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the country was economically and socially places, it created many difficult problems.
Structure and Pattern of Educational System :
Pakistan inhersted a system of education installed in the country about a century earlier (1835-1854) by the British. Soon after Independence, efforts were made to develop a national system of education by making necessary amendments and changes in the old system and by expanding the provision of education at every level.
There were three stages of education-primary, secondary and higher. There was also provision for pre-primary (though not everywhere or on a state basis) technical vocational, commercial and professional education in all parts of the country.
Education was a provincial subject, i.e. the constitutional responsibility for the maintenance and development of educational facilities rested with the Provinces, except for the Tribal Areas and the Centrally-administered areas of Dacca and Islamabad, which were the direct responsibility of the Central Ministry of Education. Till 1959, Karachi, as the Federal Capital of the country, was a centrally-administered area. When the capital was shifred to Islamabad (near Rawalpindi) and a subsidiary capital was established at Dacca, these two areas came under the Central Government.
In 1955 the four Provinces of West Pakistan were integrated into one Province under the one unit scheme.28 The Provincial Ministries in both East and West Pakistan were responsible for education, and the Secretary of Education (an official) was the ex-officio Adviser of the Provincial Governments.
There was also a Ministry of Education at the Central level but its function was only to formulate policies and co-ordinate the educational activities of the whole country on a
………………………………………………
1. The old provinces of West Pakistan were again restored in July 1970 when One Unit was undone. The provinces were Punjab Sind, Baluchistan, and the North West Frontiar Province.

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national basis. It could also allocate funds for special purpose to the Provincial Governments or to individual universities. It was assisted in this task by the following bodies:
(a) The Inter-University Board, comprising the Vice-Chancellor and two other members from eachuniversity.
(b) The Council of Technical Education, an adhoc body advising on all aspects of technical education.
But the actual responsibility for the maintenance and admistration was that of the Ministry of Education of the two provinces, which administered through several directorates of general and technical education and Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education.
In East Pakistan there were two Directorates. 29 The Directorates.29 The durectorate of Education (General) and Directorate of Technical Educaion. In West Pakistan,30 because of its bigger area. There were eight Regional Directorates two of which were on the technical side. The Directorates of Education were headed by a Government Officer-a Director, who administered the region under his control through divisional and district inspectorates. The intermediate colleges (Higher Secondary Schools) were managed directly by him.
The Director of Technical Education looked after the technical institutes and the polytechnics.
The Boards included the Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education which were four in each Province. There were two Boards of Technical Education-one in each Province and the Madressah Education Board, one in East Pakistan, to look after the Madressah and Maktab institutions giving traditional religious education. The Boards were autonomous bodies,31 and consisted of appointed, nominated and ex-officio members, headed by a Chairman appointed by the provincial government.
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29. Pakistan—1967. p. 412.
30. Ibid p. 412.
31. World Survey of Educetion : Higher Education : Vol. IV. UNESCO (1966) p. 881.

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These Boards laid down curriculum for the classes under their control and conducted examinations and surprised the functioning of schools and colleges under their jurisdictio. The prescribed qualifications for the teaching staff and saw the institutions posse sed adequate space and equipment for the efficient academic activity. They also gave recognisation to schools and colleges after yearly or two-yearly inspection. But their specific relationship with the Directorate of educaeducation was not defined clearly. The Directorate exerted control over the primary and secondary education through a system of grants-in-aid. It controlled the degree college also in matter of allocation of funds for maintenance and capitatal expenditual.
The five years of Secondary education were sub-divededinto Middle School (3 years) and High School (2 Years), public examination was held at the end of Class X (High School). In Hyderabad and Karachi a public examination was conducted at the end of Class IX and Class X each. For a large number of pupils it was the end of education.
A public examination was held at the end of Class XII (Intermediate or Higher Secondary School) after which students became eligible for admission in universities.
Trade and Vocational schools started after the eighth grade (end of Middle School) and ran parallel with the High Schools. The diversification could be made ar three stages-first at the age of 14 (grade viii). when one stream followed a general education course in a High School and the other followed a vocational course in a trade school. Secondly, after Class X, when one stream ontered an Intermediate College for a university preparatory course, and the other entered a polytechnic for technical education : the third stage was after Intermediate (Class XII) when one stream went up to the university and the other to engineering and medical colleges.32
Beyond Class XII the prescribing of the syllabi and the conduct of examinations was the responsibility of universities, which were said to be autonomous bodies, though they were
…………………………………..,………………
32. Ibid pp. 881-82

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Largely maintained by public funds, in the shape of annual grants-in-aid from the Central and the Provincial Exchequer.
1. Stages of Education:
Pre- Primary Education was provided only in a few urban areas, where kindergarten and infant schools were run and managed mainly by private agencies, and were not the charge of the State. Some infant schools, however, were opened by the givernment in the rural areas, also. These were financed by the local or Central Government to “act as a fllip” to private inteeprise in this direction. But their number was very small. The urban schools usually catered to the needs of the upper classes of society and charged a high fee. Though there was no prescribed syllabus, education was given through the medium of English following Montessori o Froebel methods.
2. Primary Education :
Primary Education started at the age of six years and lasted until the age of eleven. Compulsion was not introduced on a country-wide basis. The medium of instruction at this level was the mother tongue or the regional language of the child.
Universal and free primary education was a constitutional right, but compulsion was expected to be introduced by 1975. At first it was to be for the first five years and later was to be extended to eight years.33 No fee was charged by primary schools run by Government or the local bodies. But as there were still not enough schools, many children-especially from the upper classes went to private fec-paying schools. These institutions received grants-in-aid from the Government, but most of them were English-medium schools, though a trend to change over to the regional language or mother tongue of the child had started.
According to the 1961 Census,34 the literacy between 5 to 9 years of age was 10.7%, much below the average level of 19.2%.
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33. Pakistan 1967 : p. 143.
34. Ibid p. 143.

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The child population was about 161 million out oof which only 7 millon went to the 62,000 primary schools in the country.35 The number of schools, however, was increasing at the rate of 4,000 and the enrolment af the rate of 400,000 per year. By 1970, some 70% of the children were expected to be at school.
Administration of Primary Schools:
Pakistan’s population and area was more than that pf France and West Germany put together, but there were only two school districts in the country-East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Each Province administered primary education from its capital-Dacca and Lahore. This made the school districts much too large to be administered efficiently. Although some powers were delegated to the Regionaldirectors, Deputy Directors and District Inspectors, there was too sevear a concentration of authority at the provincial level “37 to make the system either practical or efficient.
Since the money was budgeted at the provincial level and plans were made and the execution watched from the top it created many administrative bottle-necks and resulted in delay and wastage. The local bodies had very little financial or policy-making power over education.
The Commission on National Education had reported against the maintenance of schools by local bodies. So the West Pakistan Primary Education Act was passed in 1962 and all primary schools throughout the Province (except those in the municipal areas of the Punjab) were taken over by the Government and withdrawn from the control of the local bodies.38 The Municipal Committees were required to pay 10% of their income and the District Boards paid 12% of
………………………………….. ……
35. Number of Primary School in Pakistan 1972-73, 47, 806 (after the separation of East Pakistan) Table 12 : Pakistan Education Statistics : Min. of Education Islamabad. Bnrolment : 44, 42, 779 (1972-73).
36. Namdar Khan: Some Aspects of Planning for Primary Education in Pakistan, p. 20.
37. Ibid p. 20.
38. Pakistan Quarterly: Education and Local Bodies. p. 115.
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cess levied on octroi in all municipal areas to the Provincial government to meet the cost of education.39
The provincialisation of all primary schools resulted in drying up the streams of local efforts for promotion of education. Local people were not encouraged to realise their social responsiblities. Although the overall expenditure on education had increased greatly since Independence, the expenditure on primary education as a percentage of the total had decreased from 41% in 1947-48 to 30% in 1967-68.40
3. Secondary Education :
The age group for this stage was between 11 and 16. No more than 20% of the children attending primary schools went on to the secondary stage. Between 1960-6541 the increase in enrolment was 108% . The total figure of 2.5 million increased at the rate of 200,000 annually. The schools increased at the rate of more than one new school a day.42
At this level the private sector was very active, with more than 65%43 of the total school enrolment being managed by it.
Types of Schools:
Besides ordinary government schools of a general and technical nature, there were a few pilot schools, established by the government, where a new reformed curriculum with diversified courses and new techniques of education had been introduced, for the purposes of experimentation and demonstration. English was taught as a compulsory language from class VI upto the first degree level.
………………………………………………..
39. Ibid p. 115. Special Education Number Vol, XIII No. 4. 1966,
40. Namdar Khan – Ibid p. 6. Percentage in terms of total expenditure on education Pakistan, 1967: p. 1967 : P. 414. The enrolment figures of 1972-73 are 14. 14. 310 to no. of schools 6, 737 (after the separation of East Pakistan Education Statistics M. of Education. Islamabad Table 12.
42. Ibid p. 414.
43. Ibid p. 414.

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Public Schools were both residential and non-residential institutions run on the lines of the British schoolsof this kind. Although the syllabus they followed was more or less the same, the medium of instruction was English and more emphasis was given to games and ti be development of the qualities of leadership. They charged high fees and were also subsidised by the Government. The teachers were better paid and comparatively better qualified than those in the ordinary government schools. The cliente of these schools was the upper class of society.
Pre-Cadet Schools and Colleges were in the same category, as were Pakistan Air Force and Contonment Public Schools. These were either old schools or those which had been established in several cities and towns of Pakistan. The pre cadet schools, selected boys after competitive tests and interviews and provided training in general education with an emphasis on military training. They were managed and controlled by the Education Branch of the Ministry of Defencr.44 The pupils selected were generally provided with board, lodging, books and other facilities. These schools were socially exclusive.
European Schools were chiefly run by Christian missionarie or private foreign agencies. They were usually located in bigger cities or hill stations. They prepared the pupils for Overseas Cambridge Certificate (G. C. E) examinations. They charged high fees and sometimes also provided board and lodging facilities for the pupils.
Comprehensive High Schools were established by the Government. They provided residential facilities for the pupils who were selected on the basis of ability. Teachers were usually of a higher qualification and status. These were multilateral schools which were expected to provide training in various branches of education. Their number was very small and they were only in an experimental stage.
Technical and Vocational Schools and polytechnics provided instruction in various trades and technologies. As their number
………………………………….
44. UNESCO Wo,d Survey of Education, Volume 3, p. 920

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was limited, proper diversification at various levels was not practically possible. But these schools were increasing in number and growing in popularity. The entire cost of technical education was borne by the Provincial Government of the central government if the schools were within the jurisdiction of the centrally-administered areas. Some assistance (in the form of technical equipment, experts and staff trainine) was also given by such agencies as the Colombo Plan, Ford Foundation and foreign Operation Administration.
Thus secondary education was passing through an experimental stage in which various categories of institutions were allowed to function with the direct encouragement of the government. But the majority of both Government and private school did not provide for a diversified education for practical or vocational courses. They generally gave a liberal arts education of a theoretical and academie kind, leading on to the universities.
All the schools were required to maintain a minimum standard in space, equipment and staff-qualification. The curicula of studies was more or less uniform, dictated by the Boards of Secondary Education In 1959 a National Committee of Text Books was set up, which published subsidised text books on various subjects. This gave some uniformity of standard.
The Regional Director of Education, with the help of the Inspectors, supervised the financial side of the schools and colleges. The amount of grant was sent annually by the Provincial Governments to the Regional Directorates which distributed it to individual institutions. The accounts of the institutions were annually audited by Government auditors for purposes of grant-in-aid.
Higher Education :
Colleges. The last two y of Higher Secondary Schools were called “Intermediate” for they were treated as intermediate between the Secondary and university education. They were assumed to be the starting point of higher education rather than the concluding part of secondary education, as in most other countries.

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There were two kinds of ccolleges-Intermmediate, ( also called Higher Secondary School), and Degree College. The intermediate Colleges had two year classes XI and XII or had classes right from the Primary or Secondary stege. The degree Colleges could also have an intermediate section attached to them under the general administration of the same principal.
The Intermediate Colleges or the Intermediate section of the Degree Colleges were affiliated to the Boards of intermediate and Secondary Education and were govern by the Board’s rules and regulations.
The Degree Colleges were afiliated to the lacal universities under whose jurisdiction they happened to lie. They were governed by the rules and regulations laid down by the universities. Normally the Degree colleges were not allowed to conduct postgraduate and honours classes except in the case of a few old institutions in the Punjab. The postgraduate and honours classes were conducted by the teaching department of the universities.
Over 65% of the degree colleges were privately owned.45 They were managed by a governing body constituted according to university regulations. They received grants-in-aid from the Provincial Government, through the Regional Directorate of Education.
Universities :
There were 1346 universities in Pakistan including two Central Universities for Higher Research. They are, according to their date of establishment :
The University of Punjab at Lahore (1882), Dacca (1921), Sind at Hyderabad (1947), Peshawar (1950), Karachi (1951), Rajshahi (1953), the Agricultural Universities at Mymensingh and Lyallpur, and the Engineering and Technological universities
…………………………………………..
45. Pakistan, 1967, p. 416.
46. After the Separation of Bangla Desh there were 8 Universities left in West Pakistan with an enrolment of 23.034 (1971-72). Since then seven new universities have been opened: (1980).

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at Dacca and Lahore (all four in 1961), Islamabad (1966), Chittaging (1966). The Jahangirnagar University (Dacca) on pattern of Islamabad University was a non-affiliating unitary university specifically for Higher Research in Science (1970).
The total enrolment in all these universities was 30,000 in 1969-7047
Except for the two Central Universities and four professional universities of Agriculture Engineering and Technology all the other universities were both affiliating and teaching institutions. They were autonomous bodies which prescribed their own courses and conducted their examinations. The jurisdiction of each was laid down by the Act constituting it, with subsequent amendments when necessary.
Constitution of the University:
There was more or less an identical pattern of authority and internal structure and relationships in all the universities. The Provincial governors were the ex-officio Chancellors of the uniiversity. The Vice-Chancellor was the chief executive officer of the university, both for administration and academic purposes. He was appointed by the Chancellor for a term of four years, which was extendable. He was assisted in the performance of his duties by a registrar, a treasurer, and a controlter of examinations. The supreme administrative, financial and policy-making authority to help the Vice-Chancellor was the Syndicate, which consisted of eleven members containing representatives of the Provincial Education Department, some senior professors of the university, principals of affiliated colleges, and nominees of the Chancellor.48
The Vice-Chancellor was also assisted by various specialised bodies such as the Academic Council, the Faculties, the
…………………………… …………..
47. Fourth Plan : p. 178.
48. The University Syndicate is comprised of 21 members and in a more representations body now, its members include 2 representatives of university and college teachers each, representatives of students, members of provincial assemblies, University grant commission, Senate etc.

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Boards of studies, the Selection Board for the appoinment of the Staff, the Committee for Advanced Study and RResearch,the Finance Committee, and the Planning and Development Committee. There was also an Inter-University Board, s body of Vice-Chancellors and other members of all the universities, to bring about national uniformity and a highacademic standard and to perform co-ordinate and corporate of functions.49 a
FFinances: Upto 70% of 50 the expenditure of each university was met by the public funds. Almost all the universities have built their new campuses over an area of about 1,000 acres each. The Third Plan allocated over Rs. 200 million for construction work alone in eight of these universities. In the general universities there were often seven facalties, and upto 25 departments. They provided courses in arts, social science, medicine, law, engineering and agriculture. They also offered higher research degrees such as Ph.D, LLD, D.Litt, D.Sc., etc.
Professional Education: besides being given in the universities, was provided in the four specialised universities of Agriculture, and Engineering and Technology.
Agricultural colleges, colleges of engineering, law, commerce, public and business administration, medicine and education, were all affiliated to the universities–some of these being autonomous institutions, giving their own degrees.
There were Two Institutes of Education for higher studies and research in education-one each, at Dacca and Lahore. Colleges for Physical Education were also established to train teachers of physical education for schools and colleges. Specjalised, professional colleges of Home Economics were established in both the wings providing education up to the Masters Degree. All these institutions were affiliated to the university and were guided by the rules and regulations of the university.
…………………………………….
49. Pakistan : 1967, p. 418.
50. Ibid p. 418.

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Critical Analysis of the System:
The system and pattern of education had been the target of criticism for a long time and as early as November 1947, three months after Independence, a Conference was called to look into the problems of education and to devise a new pattern. The confarence expressed great dissatisfaction with the existing system and redolved.
“The Committee strongly feels that we should without delay, lay the foundation of an educational system anew and urge government and universities should take immediate action toward that end.”51
Hence in 1951 a Six Year Plan for Educational Development was launched, which promised to change the structure and pattern of education at all levels.
Various Plans were made to make adjustments in the old system and to bring it in line with the new requirements, but some of the old weaknesses not only persisted but were grossly accentuated by the sudden expansion at every level.
So far as the universities were concerned the First Plan had nointed out that although they were organised as separate Statutory bodies and their autonomy was recognised in principle, they were in practice, “meticulously controlled by the Government”, and were so “unwieldy in administration that vigorous action to correct deficiencies”52 was needed.
Not only did the universities increase in number within a few years after Independence, they also expanded internally by increasing the number of departments. Dacca university added six new departments; Punjab university opened seven new departments ; Peshawar university, established in 1950, had 14 departments of study: Karachi university established in 1951, organised three faculties and twenty departments of study, Rajshahi university established in 1953, offered post-graduate
……………………………………
51. The Six Year Plan for Educational Development in Pakistan: Ministry of Education, Karachi. (1951-1957).
52. First Five Year Plan (1955-60) p. 546.

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graduate instruction in ten subjects athough government expenditure on colleges and university education increased several times over53 this rapid and unplanned expansion universities was not a very gratifying feature of higher education. The First Plan expressed concern at it. “The universities are adding teaching department rapidly, perhaps too rapidly, without sufficient consideration for the situatiation of higher education as a whole. It warned that ischemes to create still other universities should be held in abeyance untill the existing universities had gained needed strength in facilities and personnel. It would be a mistake to spread the limited staffs and equipment resources available for universities thinly”.54
The analysis of available information as reported by the First Plans revealed that there were large gaps and maladjustment in the system of education. Many departments in the universities were mere skeletons; no provision exised for research in education. Failures bad increased ominously Curriculum deficiencies still handicapped a balanced development of higher education. Literary subjects such as oriental languages, and social sciences such as philosophy, history and political science dominated at the expense of scientific and technological subjects. The medium of instruction, which was English, provided great difficulties for the majority of students who had very inadequate training in that language in their secondary schools.
The system of examination was generally recognised as one of the most unsatisfactory features of higher education. It was rigid and top-heavy in administration. It also served as a formidable stumbling block in the path of curriculum revision. The First Plan pointed out that “the slow and cumbersome process which was required to revise syllabi and change text books, forced teaching to lag behind the current state of knowledge, and inhibited the introduction of new knowledge and new ideas by the teacher. Students’ diligence and excellence
53. Ibid p. 546.
54. Ibid p. 569
55. Ibid p. 573

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and creativeness of his work were not the subjects of judgement or guidance by the individual teacher or by the college. The examinations had neither validity nor reliability. It was not surprising that a large number of the degree candidates failed their examinations. The system developed pressure from the students for procedural changes more time, simpler examinations, lower passing grades, etc.56
In spite of these criticisms the system and pattern of education that was allowed to develop contained many inadequacies. It lacked a sense of direction and purpose and at no level of education were the students directly involved with their environment . The curriculum was for the most part highly bookish and academic without any relevance to students’ immediate needs.
In a rural economy dominated by agriculture, manual work was looked down upon. It created a strangulating effect on the physical, mental and moral development of the pupils. The social stigma attached to manual work and the high esteem given to certain white-collar jobs produced an unhealthy effect on the attitude of the young men. Educational opportunity was not equally open to all students on the basis of merit and generated a bitter feeling of frustration among the young people.
Some of the major inadequacies were as follows:
1. The presence of more than 80% of illiterate population was the biggest stumbling block to progress in any field of activity and required a crash programme of dedicated effort on a national level to combat it. The primary school established in the rural areas usually gave a kind of education to children which had no relevance to their life. Many children dropped out of schools even before completing the full schooling and fell back into illiteracy. A massive scale of educational wastage resulted from the 7% of drop-outs between the age of 5 and 10 enrolled in the primary schools.57
……………………………………………
56. Ibid p. 574.
57. Speech of the Central Minister of Education : International Conference on Education in Geneva : Times Educational Supplement dated 10. 1970

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Those who did complete the primary education and went on to the secondary stage, added to the already large number of the educated unemployed, for their education did not compare them for any worthwhile vocation. A full blooded campaing and efforts for adult education also needed to be launched at the same time. The half-hearted measures taken to do away with illiteracy did not bear fruit.
2. There was no national cohesion in the system of education as pointed out by the Proposals for a new educational policy (1969)58 There remained three paralle system of educational organisation—the modern school started bt British, with national languages as the medium instruction, the costly and exclusive Public Schools (for the elit) with English as the medium of instruction started and run bith under private management and by Goverment patronage; and Islamic Madressals and Darul Ulooms teaching Arabic and religious subjects like the Quran, Hadith, Figh etc.
There was thus no uniformity in the country even at the level of primary education.
According to Noor Khan’s Proposals for a New educational Policy,59 the Madressah schools had been started by the Muslim rulers and in their heyday they produced mant learned men of letters, administrators and religious men but they lingered on in their earliest form, and were hardly relevant to the present day needs and requirements of the country.
The elitist public schools, though supported by public funds, catered to the needs of the privileged classes who by birth and position were trained to take up leadership in social, political and economic fields. The system thus strengthened class distinctions and created parallel sections even among the educated classes.
3. There was no effective disversification at the secondary or tertiary level and all secondary school-leavers drifted into
……………………………………
58. Proposals for a Mew Educational Policy (July 1969) pp. 1-4.
59. Ibid pp. 1-4

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College and universities giving general education in academic subjects.
4. Education was not given a technical and agricultural bias at any stage. The expansion in education was not co-ordinated with the provision of more job opportunities, which in its turns was tied up with system of economic planning.
5. The standard of higher education also needed to be raised. Research in applied and natural sciences and indigenous products was neglected due to lack of proper initiative on the part of authorities.
6. Too much was left to private enterprise without any consideration to the requirements of educational planning. The result was a lop-sided expansion in the humanities rather than a balanced development of scientific, Vocational and technical skill according to the economic needs of the country. This created a serious imbalance between the manpower needs and educational output.
These weaknesses resulted in making the educational system incapable of responding to the needs and requirements of the nation on the one hand and failing to promote a national consensus on the other. The system was thus limited in its scope and method and allowed many undesirable features to creep into the academic atmosphere of the campuses.

—X—

5
THE PROBLEM OF LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION

The Role of Language
Language is an indispensable form of human communication. It is also the storage of a nation’s history and culture and is a strong source of strengthening national pride. Sentiments on language are usually strong and inspire nation consciousness. Like race and religion language can play dual function of both unifying and dividing human beings. Since all formal knowledge is transmitted through the tool of words, language is closely linked with education.
Like several other countries of the words, Pakistan is a country of many languages. The most important are Urdu, Punjabi, Pushto, Sindhi and Baluchi, together with many other languages and dialects spoken by pockets of communities in various regions.
The problem of language, therefore, assumes a vital importance in the field of education as well as in the political situation and socio-economic structure of the country.
Historical Background
The official language at present used in Pakistan is English. The introduction of English in the subcontinent was the result of the British conquest. The official language under the Moghuls had been Persian, while the languages of learning were

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Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian. With the change of rulers the official language too had to change. So far as the language of learning and education was concerned, there was sharp division of opinion among the members of the East India Company’s committee of Public Instruction as to the use of English or oriental languages. It resulted in a long controversy extending for more than twenty years from 1813 to 1833—the Orientalist- anglicist1 controversy. It was mainly over the expenditure of a sum of 100,000 rupees allotted aunually by the East India Company for the revival and improvement of literature and the encouragement of the learned natives of India”. The difference of opinion was on whether the money should be used in teaching of English or on that of Oriental languages.
But while this controversy was still continuing, the idea of English education found support among educated Indians themselves. The foremost among the supporters of English was Raja Ram Mohan Roy.2
The controversy came to an end in 1835 with the appointment of Lord Macaulay as President of the Committee of public Instruction, who gave his unstinted support in favour of English. His Minute was accepted by Lord William Bentinck who issued an order declaring : ”that the great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European literature and science among the natives of India, and that all funds appropriated for the purposes of education would be best employed on English education alone.”
This decision was a turning point in the socio-political history of the subcontinent. The new schools and colleges were meant for the upper
classes, who had lost their political influence because of the conquest of the British. It was intended to win back their loyalties by offering them subordinate ranks in the government services. They were not meant for the masses.
Macaulay’s view was that when the upper classes were
………………………..
1. Nurullah and Naik : History of Education in India, p. 107.
2. Selections from Educational Records, Part 1, 1981-1839, pp. 99-101.
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educated, their culture would descend to the lower classes.3 But this did not happen, and a deeper gulf was created between the upper lower classes of Indian society which was already caste ridden and where social mobility was difficult. The decision also give a stunning blow to the indigenous school which has so far been partronised by the local nobility and Zamindars. According to Adam’s report there were some 100.000 elementary school4 in Bengal and Bihar alone to cater needs of a population of 40,000,000 a village schols for every 400 persons- an average of a village school for every 63 children of the school-going age.”
The actual number of sehools might be disputed but it was fact that the schools did exist, although they were not thd models of the best academic standards or pepagovic methods. But their chief merit was said to be their “adaptability to local environment and the vitality and popularity they had ear,ned by centuries of existence under a variety of economic conditions and political vicissitudes.5
The new system of education was a complete departure from any system already in cxistence. Adam had advised that the indigenous institutions should be utilised for giving stimulus to the native mind” and as “being the simplest, the safest the most popular and the most economical;6 but his pro posals went unheeded and the indigenous schools were allowed to disintegrate and die. All the money and energy was spent in setting up an altogether “new system of education ab initio.7
These new schools could not take the place of the indigenous schools and were limited to teaching only a small scetion of the upper classes. The result was that the masses
………………………………
3. Selections from Educational Records, Vol. I, p. 179.
4. Nurullah and Nalk: History of Education in India. pp. 2, 21. Sir Philip Hartog, however, does not agree with Adam’s statistics and dubs them as “fantastic exaggeration of facts”: Somo Aspects of Indian Education Past and Present, p. 75.
S. Ibid., p. 40.
6. Adam’s Report: Calcutta Edition, pp. 349-50.
7. Nurullah and Naik: op. cit. p. 49.

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were thrown into the abyss of ignorance and illiteracy and the enlightenment of the new educated classes could not-as conceived by the rulers-filter down to the masses. The new educated classes became culturally and intellectually uprooted havinf been fed on alien norms and values, which made them virtual Foreigners in their own land. This division for obviously reasons, also coincided with the socio-economic and class divisions of the society.
The teaching of English was an administrative necessity and found a fertile ground in the Indian soil. Education began to be taken as nonymous with the knowledge of English. This resulted in the lack of development of local and regional languages. It also became one of the major causes of the loop sided delopment of education-putting emphasis on the learning of a foreign language which was linguistically and phonetically very different from the indigenous languages of the country. It turned out to be the indirect cause of a great melaise in the educational system-the habit of cramming instead of concentrating on learning a subiect, the students had to spend most of their time and energy on learning English.
Abbot and Wood (1936), discussing this problem point out. “It is not possible accurately to assess the mental dislocation and the inhibition which boys of say 16 years of age suffer from being required to give and receive information, to formulate ideas to record their experiences and to express their sense of values in a language other than that which they use and have always been in the habit of using in domestic and social life… Our experience … persuades us that this use of English as the medium of instruction lies at the root of the ineffectiveness of many of them.” They go on to say that the boys are “hampered at every turn by having to handle an instrument which comes between them and spontaneity’.8
But English continued to be the medium of instruction both at secondary and higher stages of education until 1941
………………………………
8. Report of Vocational Education in India by Abbot and Wood, quoted by Report on Secondary Education, Board of Secondary Education, Lahore (1956-57), p. 142.

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when the students of High School were given the option to write in their mother tongue.”9
Since most of the new knowledge was stored in English proficiency in English became necessary in all field of education. The learning of English, therefore took a disproportionate time of the school time-cable and curriculum. The local languages went out of public demand for their lack of promise in providing lucrative jobs in business, education or administration.
The struggle for independence, however brought with it the consciousness of this discriminatory treatment towards the national languages. The English language became the symbol of foreign domination and began to be as much condemned by the political leaders as foreign rule itself.
There is no denying the fact that the introduction of the English language and Western education in India widened the outlook of the people, and brought them in close contract with the new advancing world of Western science and technology.
It also aroused in them the idea of individual freedom and democracy, then gaining ground in the West which was forsaking its old feudal concepts of an earlier age.
But one great damage that has been done is the blow to the people’s morale and confidence in the worth and efficacy of their own language, so that today even after more than two decades of independence, the controversy of English versus national languages is still darkening the horizons of the subcontinent.
However, Macaulay’s dream to produce “a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and intellect’10 did not come true. For, the newly educated people began to crave f reedom from foreign rule as they became politically more aware.
To give Macaulay his due, it must be said that he had expected that the vernacular dialects of the country would be
………………………………
9. S. K. Chatterji: The Year Book of Education, 1949. p. 483.
10. Selections from Educational Records, Part 1, (1781-1839), p. 115.

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enriched” with “terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature” and “would be rendered fat for cconvening to the great mass of the population11. But this did not happen for the English-educated men instead of percolating the knowledge of the West to the masses, were by and large cut off from the mainspring of their own cultural streams. They develop a split personality and could not adjust themselves in the root and soil of their own surroundings. Thei creative sensitivity was badly impaired, and they could not produce great works of art or literature for several decades. To impose a foreign language as a medium is to perforce compel people into silencs.
The demand for Independence and the study of national language therefore, developed side by side. Mahatma Gandhi while asking the students to boycott Government schools, told them also to boycott the English language as the language of the victors while asking the students to which reminded people of their political subjugation. He said: “The highest development of the Indian mind must be possible without English.” — “To get rid of the infatuation for English is one of the essentials of Swaraj. 12
When a language becomes saturated with political or communal biases it ceases to remain just an intellectual or social medium. The study of a language is not merely a study of ts syntax and grammar; it is also a window to the culture and society of a linguistic group. In the special circumstances of India, English was not merely a learned foreign language. It was the language of the conquerors, containing in it not only all the difficulties entailed in the learning of a foreign language, but the indignities of subjugation.
Background of Urdu and Hindi
Hindi and Urdu had developed together; and except in the matter of script, are regarded by many as more or less, one and the same language. The complexion of this language is essentially Indian, as it took its shape after centuries of mixing together of Sanskrit, the original language of learning in India,
……………………………..
11. Ibid., p. 116.
Gandhi : To the Students –Young India, 2.2. 1921.

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and the various Prakrits, the languages of the common people which differed from one region to the other. The coming of Muslims with their own language-Arabic, Persia, Turkish laid the foundations of a hybrid tongue variously called Hindi. Rekhta, Urdu, and Hindustani.13 Its origin is said to be sometime during the 11th and 12th centuries and some of the earliest extant specimens of the languge get back to the reign of Prithviraj.14 It is supposed to have originated in the land of Doab- the land of two rivers, Jamna, Ganges ( Do’ -ab= two waters) somewhere around Delhi and Agra. It mixed with Brij Bhasha, the tongue used near Mothura. Some literary historians like Mohammed Hussain Azad think that Brij Bhasha and Urdu are the same languag with the srrival of Muslims, Persian influence increased and many Sifis are Divines like Amir Khusro, Ramanand, Kabir Das, Mira Bai, Sur-Das and Guru Nanak popularised the language by their devotional writings and songs.19 Their writings are the great example of the fusion of the local dialects with the learned language Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian. Words and phases of a mixed nature were used by them to communicate with the common people.
The language also spread to South India with Alauddin Khilji’s conquest of Golconda and Bijapur. According to literary historians, Wali Decani (of South India) was the first Urdu poet whose diction and style is a mixture of Arabic, Persian and Hindi.
During the Muslim rule, though the language of the court
was Persian, it was never the language of the common people. Urdu, Hindi or Hindustani in its various modified forms remained the language of the common people and kept on developing from 1225 (Amir Khusro) to 1857 (fall of the Moghul Empire).16 It spread though the works of the mystics
………………………………..
13. Professor Ahmad Ali: The Muslim World Series, No. 7. Renaissance Book Shop, Cairo, p. 105.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.

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and saints who wish to reach the common people in the same way as Lord buddha had spread his message through Pali not through Sanskrit.
Thus of all the various languages of the great Indian sub-continent Urdu/ Hindi was the only language which had comparatively the widest range of understanding. The spoken words, syntsx grammar in Urdu and Hindi are the same. But with the passage of time the language as spoken by Hindus assimilated more words of Sanskrit origin, while that used by Muslims absorbed words from Arabic and Persian. The scripts also differed radically, the Urdu script was derived from the Pardian snd written from right to lett, while Hindi was in the Debnagri script and written clock-wise. With the political and communal conflict between Hindus and Muslims, language also becamd the apple of discord, and the two basically similar alanguages began to drift apart.
Problems After Independence : Pakistan
Indepence, however, did not bring the solution of the linguistic problem. Politics had changed by the fact of independence, but languages had not. Languages were much more ingrained in the habits of the people than the political ideology or the system of government. Hence the achievement of Independence was the beginning of many perplexing problems. The most crucial issue that faced Pakistan lay not morely in the multiplicity of languages. The language spoken by the physically separated Eastern wing was Bengali which incidentally, also happened to be spoken by the majority of the country’s population-54.3 per cent-and yet it was confined only to one region and could not be understood in the other region at all. The Western region was also heterogeneous in matter of language with Pushto, Sindhi, Baluchi and Urdu as the main language of its various regions.
When the Muslims of India had declared themselves to be a nation by themselves, with their distinct culture and language they had Urdu in mind and not any other provincial language,17 writes a historian.
…………………………..
17. G. W. Chowdhury : Constitutional Development in Pakistan, p. 124.

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During the struggle for Pakistan, among other reason of conflict with the Hindus, the neglect of Urdu was one of the major reasons of discord, and it was taken for granted that Urdu would be the national language of Pakistan. Since it would be the only communicating link between various provinces.
But K. B. Sayeed18 mentions an incident as early as 1937 at the Lucknow session of the All-India Muslim league, when a resolution recommending Urdu to be made the linguafranca of Muslim India and calling upon the All-India Muslim league to make Urdu its official language, was Opposed by the Bengali members, who pointed out that the Muslim of Bengal constituted more than a third of the total ppopulations of muslims in India, and the use of Urdu would hamper the propaganda of the Muslim League among Bengali Muslim. The resolution was then amended to “make all efforts pisible” to make Urdu the lingua-franca of the Muslim League.
Persian, which provided the Urdu script, was the language of Muslim kings and nobility, and had come to be regarded as the language of culture and religion. The rulers at Delhi and in South India had patronised Urdu poets, scholars and religious men, so that the language had collected a vast store of religious and philosophical writings and was greatly cherished by the Muslims. Though it was not the mother tongue of all the Indian Muslims, it had come to be regarded as the language of Muslims and had constituted one of the reasons of Hindu-Muslim antagonism in the sub- continent, dating back to the carly years of British rule. 19
The Bengali script is derived from the Sanskrit, aPakistan was a fallacious idea among the West Pakistanis that the
…………………………………
18. K. B. Sayeed, Pakistan, The Formative Phase, p. 227.
19. Altaf Hussain Hali in his Life of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, writes of an incident of 1867 when some Hindu leaders of Benares resolved against the use of the Urdu language, written in Arabic script in government courts, and demanded it to be replaced by Devnagri script of Hindi – an incident which deeply agitated Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: S. M Ikram: Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan(1858-1951), p. 35.

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Bengali language was dominated by Hindu philosophy and thought an allegation which the East Pakistanis repudiated vehemently. They maintained that the Bengali language was not the vehicle of Hindu culture alone, but that of the composite culture of Hindus and Muslims of East Bengal, and that it was eenriched and developed under the patronage of the Pathan Sultans of Bengal, when it became the vehicle of thought of common people. They held that about half the words of Bengali were not derived from Sanskrit, but originated from Persian, Urdu and Arabic. 20
It was only during the Nineteenth under British rule, that the Hindu influence increased when the language was moderise by the newly-educated Hindus of Bengal like Bankim chandra Chatterji, Madhusudan Dutta, Bihari Lal Chakrabarti and others. 21

Dr. Rabindranat Tagor gave it a deep mysticism and enriched ana expanded the during the first half of t the Twentieth Century. Muslims did not associate themselves with these new developments of the language, till Nazrul Islam heralded a new era in modern Bengali literature by giving it a revolutionary orientation. 22
The problem of languages in Pakistan was further complicated by the fact that unlike India where Hindi in its various forms is used by about 42%25 of the people, and is the mother- tongue of a large region of North India, Urdu was not the mother-tongue of any particular area of Pakistan, though of all the languages it was the only language which could be understood in its various regions. This particular point could have gone in favour of Urdu, for its acceptance could have made it
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20. Constituent Assembly of Pakistan Debates, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 28. April 10, 1952, K. K. Dutta.
21. Dr. Enamul Haq: Muslim Contribution to the Development of Bengali Language and Literature, East Pakistan – A Profile (Long -mans) 1952, p. 104.
22. Ibid., pp. 119-126.
23. India : Report of The Official Language Commission, 1956, p. 28. (Government of India Press, Now Delhi, 1957).

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the potential lingua franca of the country, without giving special favourable advantage to any one linguistic group.
But the people of East Pakistan did not take kindly to making Urdu the only State language of Pakistan. As early as 1948 this feeling was expressed when a member of a constituent Assembly 24 from Bengal moved an amendment to the Assembly rules desiring Bengali to be used along with Urdu and English in the discussions of the Assembly to the language of the majority of the population of Pakistan. Bur Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan’s reply to this request was that Pakistan was created by the demand of 100 million muslims of the subcontinent and that the language of the 100 million Muslims is Urdu …” He also asserted that pakistan was a Muslim State and it must have its lingua franca, the language of the Muslim nation, and that Urdu was the only language which could keep the people of Pakistan’s two regions joined together. He said that the “object of the amendment was to create a rift between the people of Pakistan”. 25
It must be pointed out that Liaquat Ali Khan’s assertion that Urdu was the language of all the 100 million Muslims of the subcontinent was factually incorrect, as the linguistic distribution of population in any Census Report would show. But assertion of Mr. D.N. Dutta that “the State languag the State should be the language which is used by the majority of the people of the State” and hence ‘Bengali should be the lingua franca of our State’ was equally fallacious and impracticable, since the Bengali language could be understood only by the population of one wing. Also, since the adjournment motion had come from a member of the Congress Party, who till recently was opposed to the idea of Pakistan, it created reasonable suspicions in the mind of Liaquat Ali Khan. Chowdhury writes that the Indian Press of West Bengal (India), gave its full support and blessing to the language controversy in East Bengal, 26 and confirmed the suspicions of the Muslim League leaders. Mr. Jinnah in a public meeting on
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L24. C. A. P. Debates, Vol. II, Feb. 25, 1948, pp. 15-17.
25. Ibid., p. 15-17.
26. G. W. Chowdhury: Constitutional Development in Pakistan, p. 127.

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his first visit to East Bengal (March 1948), said: “I want to tell you that our midst there are people financed by foreidisruption. They say that the Pakistans who are intent on creating disruption Pakistan Government and East Bengal Government are out to destroy your language. A bigger falsehood was never uttered.27 Later, in his Convocation address to the students or Dacca University, referring to the ” recent language controversy” in which some of the students had allowed themselves to be involved in spite of the Prime minister’s clarification of the position,” he said: “Let me re-state my views on the question of a State language for Pakistan for official use in this Province, the people of the province can choose any language they wish. This question will be decided solely in accordance with the wishes of the people of this province alone, as freely expressed though their accerideted resentatives at the appropriate time and after full and disionate consideration. There can, however, be only lirena-franca, that is, the language for inter-communication between various provinces of the State and that language should be Urdu, and cannot be any other. Any one who tries to mislead you is really the enemy of Pakistan without one State language no nation can remain tied up solidly together to function”.
Mr. Jinnah was deeply respected by all, and his words even when distasteful carried weight. The position appeared to have been accepted at that time. But the political and economic problems took an unhealthy turn after the death of Jinnah in 1948. The stature of leadership also declined. The constitution of the country could not be made for several years after independence, and the ruling party remained in power for much too long a time to remain popular.
The question of national language remained in the balance while English continued to be used for all official, administrative and educational purposes. It was the medium of instruction at the higher levels, and the regional languages were the medium of instruction in primary and secondary schools.
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27. Quaid-i-Azam M. A. Jinnah’s Speeches, p. 82.
28. Quaid-i-Azam M. A. Jinnah’s Speeches, 1947-48, p. 85-86, Karachi.

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In East Pakistan, Bengali and Urdu medium sections within the same schools began to operate in order to cater to the needs of the two linguistic groups. But English was taught as a compulsory second language.
The Place of English
In Pakistan, the place of honour is still retained by English, inspite of the verbal and paper declaration that the national language would be used. The Constitutions of 1956 and 1962 provided their English should be used for official and other purposes until arrangement for its replacement were made. Hence the place of English still remains unchallenged for the time being.
With the increased demand for education, therefore, there was a simultanious increased demand for studying English. There are more,”English Medium” schools today than there ever were before Independence, flourishing especially in cities which are centres of education.These schools are supposed to provide better education and hence are allwed to charge higher fees ranging from Rs. 10 to Rs.50 or more per month per child as against Rs.4 or Rs.5 charged by Urdu medium or Government schools, which are regarded as something like the old elementary British schools. The clientele of the two types of schools also differ sharply in socio-economic status and background. The old Missionary schools still under the management of foreign Missions, teach through the medium of English cater to the upper classes of society which alone can afford to pay the high fees. But the pedagogical methods used in all these schools are still old-fashioned and unscientific, stressing cramming and rote work through the medium of English.
All serious opinion agrees with the principle of not having English as the medium of instruction, especially in primary and secondary stages. The Punjab university commission (1950-52) and the National Commission on Education (1959) have made categorical recommendations to this effect. But the recommendations have had only a limited impact, as they have not yet been fully implemented. There is a good deal of confusion at all levels of educations, with some school and colleges

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Still continuing with the medium of English, while others teaching English as one of the compulsory subjects of study from the secondary stage onwards. But the students’ grasp and comprehension of the English language is fast deteriorating, as the analysis of any examination result would show. More students every year and at all levels fail in compulsory English than any other subject. The reasons for this deterioration in standards are academic, administrative and pedagogic.
The Karachi and Punjab university have decided to use Urdu as the medium of instruction, while Peshawar university still uses the English medium. But the majority of students, when given an option prefer to express themselves in their own language rather than in English.
The much debated question today of that is standards especially at higher stages where the paucity of reference books in the national languge might pull standards down. The Punjab university Commision had warned that “ant hasty decision based on misplaced enthusiasm for a language will prove harmful and retard the progress of our country”. It said that the study of English was “indespensible for our students” and it would be a grave loss if under any sentimental pressure, the study of this language were to be neglected in our schools and colleges. Hence the change-over was to be affected by a carefully considered and graded programme’. 29
Similar views were expressed by the Indian University Commission headed by Dr. Radhakrisnan, the National Commission on Education (Pakistan) in 1959 and the Kunzru committee, appointed by the University Grants Commission (India), 1957, to report on the question of media of instruction and the teaching of English.
The problem of standards does not necesserily arise from the using one language or the other, but from the students basic knowledge of the subject. The deterioration in the standars of education pointed out by educationist, and bewailed by
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29. Report of Punjab University Commission, 1950-52, pp.276-280.

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Administrators and employers, is not always due to the medium of instruction or lack of knowledge or command of English alone (expect when the criteria of knowledge is confused with the knowledge of English), but on account of a general deterioration of standards in all subject. It is the method of teaching and learning, the system of examinations the structure of educational administration and the general approach of society towards education which are at fault. The desire to get an easy degree ; the emphasis on making University degrees cheap as passports to all kinds of job; the lack of financial resources of educational institutions; the dearth of good libraries and books and equipment in institutions of education-all these are responsible for a general lowering of standards.
Osmania University in India which experimented in using Urdu as a medium of instruction up to a highest levels has produced some notable educationist, scientist and doctors, equal to any produced by others Universities. Dr. Munnawar Ali, an eminent surgeon, who has earned a reputation for successful plastic surgery, told the writer that he had studied throughout in the Urdu medium, but had at the same time studied English as a second language, and had experienced no difficulty in pursuing his advanced studies and research through books written in English. Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, the eminent India lawyer, who worked for several years as examiner of law in various Indian Universities, in his report on the examinees of the Osmania University wrote: “The law students of Osmania University discussed legal points with much greater freedom and understanding that the candidates of law in other Universities who wrote in English”.30
Another eminent scholar and educationist, Khalifa Abdul Hakim, who was long associated with the experiment in the Osmania University31 said: “The experiment succeeded marvellously in subjects of arts, like law, education, history, philosophy, economic, sociology, etc… All good students were
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30.Report of Punjab University Commission, p.348, which decided to use URDU as the medium of instruction.
31.Ibid…pp.348 349.

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Bilingual… The learner grasped more, retained more and was able to express better, being comparatively free from the unnatural restraint imposed by an alien tongue”32
Dr.Suniti Kumar Chatterji, an eminent Indian linguist, writes that as a child he had to study through the medium of English, but when he had to compete with children of the same age from another school where they had studied all the subjects in their own languages, to his great dismay he found himself comparatively backward in all the subjects expect English.33
In order to keep the standards high, emphasis must be paid to the writing, publication and import of standard books on all subjects. But knowledge is growing at such a tremendous speed, that it is physically impossible to translate all the books into the national language and if the country has to keep pace with the scientific and technological progress of the world, it cannot be afford to cut its connection with a language which is recognized as an international store of learning. But the advanced knowledge found in the English language is not needed every man in the street. Advanced study and research is done by a few persons, who could continue to study English as a second language. But if there knowledge is to serve a useful purpose, they must be proficient in their own national languages,too, so that the result of their advanced learning and research are transmitted for the progress and enlightenment of their own people. The best in us can only blossom through our own languages- through the knowledge of advanced foreign languages could serve as an additional spur. Most of our great men of letters, like Iqbal and Faiz, had a deep grounding in English as well as their own modern and classical languages. But their best creations are in their own language.
Under the existing system even our bright students are seldom proficient in both English and their own mother tongue or national language, and hence there communication remains confined within a restricted field, and does not benefit the common people.
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32.Ibid, pp.348-349
33. World Book of Education, 1949, p. 500.

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Hence the solution of Pakistan’s linguistic problsm would lie in a cool and balanced approach towards the national, regional as well as English language. The multiplisity of llanguages, if tackled in a judicious and practical way. Should not be an insermountable block to progress. Teaching of more than one or two languages in schools and colleges can be organised and planned, as it is already done in many secondary school in Britain, America and Europe, where at least one or two modern foreign languages are taught together with the national language. With daily expanding knowledge in all fields in a shirking world, knowledge of more than one language and at least one international language (English in the case of Indo-Pak- Sub- continent) would not be a burden but an addition embellishment of mind. English can be learnt as a second language by those who wish to continue education at the higher level when national languages are used by Central and Provincial Governments in administration and business. the existing unduc emphasis on English as a prestigious language of the elite would automatically disappear, and only those who really wish to study English for specific purposes of higher learning and research would study it. Even now with the growth of popularity of the mass media like radio, television and films, the national language is getting impetus for developmenr and is coming into vogue.
The controversy today is not only about the place of English in our national life, but about the place of the national and regional languages in our system of administration and education, and this problem happens to be deeply linked with the political system.
Linguistie Heterogeneity and Other Problems
Pakistan has been undergoing the traumatic experience of political instability since 1953. The problem assumes a serious turn, for, there is a great heterogeneity of languages in the country. Laguages tend to change across Division (group of districts) boundaries, and sometimes within the Division.34 There are also several dialects of the same language which may not be understood by persons who speak the main language to which the dialects belong.
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34. Population Census of Pakistan 1951. Vol. 3, pp. IV, 36-51.

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So far as the mother-tongue is concerned, no single language can be claimed as a mother tongue. Thete are no less than 19 district language or groups and languages reported in Table 38 of the 1961 Census.
Besides Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, Pushto ana Baluchi some of the other important regionof the other regional mother tongues are Baruhi whis is the mother longur of 16-40 per cent of the people of Quetta and Kalat Divisions ; Gujrati is the mother-tongue of 2.8 ppercent of the inabitants of Hyderabad, Khairpur and Karachi division. In the same way, Kohistani, Khorar and Shina are the mother tongues of substantial percentage of the people in Malakand Agency of Peshawar division. Rajsthani was reported as the mother tongue of 1.38 per cent of the people of Hyderabad, Khairpur and Karachi Divisions. 35
This linguistic diversitydiversity has got to be taken into consideration in any plan for educational educational development and the spread of literacy. The Commission on National Education (1959) recommended that all education up to Class V must be carried on through with the mother-tongue, and that the national language to be tought form Class III onwards, replacing the mother tongue as medium from Class VI onwards. This recommendation could be practicable in Punjab, Baluchistan, Bahawalpur and Karachi, where the medium of instruction has already been Urdu for several years.
But in Sind the medium was Sindhi up to Class X, and there was great resistance to the change-over to Urdu. This province has been economically and educationally one of the most back-ward provinces of Pakistan. The people of Sind are very conscious of their linguistic heritage. They have produced eminent educationists, poets, scholars, philosophers and mystics in their language. It was quite natural for them to stick to the study of their own language. In script and vocabulary Sindhi language has many common features with Urdu, and the two languages have a good deal of affinity; but the demand for Sindhi was taken by the protagonists of Urdu as an assault on the national language.
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35. Ibid.

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The conflict on languages was also tied up with the socio-economic and political grievances of the people of sind.Most of the new sindhis (the refugees from India who have settled in sind) are Urdu- speakig land-owners,economically competing with the local landlords as well as exploiting, like their Sindhi counterparts, the poor peasants of the province.In a situation like this, it was easy to differentiate and classify the newcomers from the local population on the basis of language.In order to maintain their own position, it was in the interest of the big feudal lords of Sind to raise parochial and linguistic slogans in order to divert the attention of the poor and ignorant masses from the real economic and social issues and to set them fighting against a linguistic minority group.
The causes of Sindis’ grievance arose from the resettelment of Urdu-speaking refugees and retired army officials and public servants from punjub and the Frontire Province on the best irregated lands of Sind.The feudal system of land-ownership, the amalgamation of the provience of the Sind into One Unit (constituting one province for the whole of West Pakistan) in 1955, and the rigid domination of the bureacuracy consisting mostly of non Sindhis, had upset the balance of power against the Sindhis. The imposition of Urdu (through accepted as a national language) as the medium of instruction was the last straw in the camel’s back and resulted in stiff resistance against the “new Sindhis” and “their language” which was Urdu.The slogan of “Long Live Sind” (Jiay Sind) captured the imagination of the young people, causing tension on the institutions of higher education and university. Protest demonstrations agitation and strikes against the local and educational authorities have assumed huge proportion during the last few years, resulting in riots, closure of school and colleges, suspension of teachers and arrest of students.
After the break-up of One Unit ( in July 1970) the major causes of the grievances of smaller provinces was removed and the old provinces of Sind, Punjab Baluchistan and frontire province were restored; but small conflicts keep arising between various linguistic group. The Sindh university Syndicate decided to introduce Sindhi as the language of Board of Secondary.

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Education and Sind university. 36 The position in Sind was a difficult one because the proportion of Urdu-speaking students in the area was quite large and was bound to cause disaffection among them, and their were reports of protests and agitations against the decision.
Punjab is the only province in Pakistan which has always given unstinted support to the cause of Urdu language both as a national language as well as the language
Of the province. But during recent years there has been a growing demand for the setting up of a chair of the Punjabi language in the university of Punjab and a demand for development and advancement of the Punjabi language, a demand which should not be construde as parochial or unpatriotic.
In a multi-lingual society, all linguistic groups must be kept satisfied, which can only be done by an attentive, unprejudiced and broad minded attitude towards the cultural, social and economic interestes of all groups in order to bring about the elemination of all causes of economic and social conflicts. Concrete efforts should be directed to dispel mutual suspicion and to create understanding between various groups. What K.G. Saiydain says about the Indian situation can also apply with equal truth to Pakistan. He says, “in practice we find that a good deal of linguistic conflict…is consciusly or unconsciualy best on the unwillingness of people to grant to other languages the same right as they claim for their own.”37
He goes on to say that “in the ultimate analysis it is not the linguistic differences that are to blame, but the suspecion and distrust and fear of injustice to this or that group, which lie behind the fierce feeling of antagonism that have been generated.”
The linguistic problems can there for be tackled only with sympathy, understanding, imagination and far-sightedness. In order to bring Urdu and regional languages closer to each other
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36. Editorial: Weekly Mail, Karachi, dated August 28-September 3, 1970.
37. K.G. Salyadain : Education, Culture and Social disorder Asia Publishing house p. 127.

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The Pakistan Government can set up a Board to find out and enlist common words and phrases used in the languages so that a strong strand of unity is discovered in the apparent diversity. One common bond of unity in all the languages could be found through the Arabic language of the Quran which is religiously read, learnt and cherished by 97 per cent of the population. Most of the Arabic words are already commonly used and form a good proportion of the vocabulary of all the languages of Pakistan. The campaign for literacy can find a built in support from the masses, since the reading of the Quran is binding in all Muslims. It could also serve as a means of unifying the nation by giving a base of common reading vocabulary.Thus faith in religion, at present exploited by ignorant superstition and vested interests for their own selfish ends, could usefully be utilised as a spring-board for the spread of literacy as well as a solution of the difficult problem of language.

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