DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS

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institutes, chairs in foreign universities---these were generally carried out. This is not
surprising considering that these offices gave people high level jobs. And, of course, all
bureaucracies tend to expand and especially at the higher level because that is where
these is most money and power.
To monitor quantity a study of the five year plans---the first one came in
December 1957---and the Economic Survey of Pakistan is necessary. Kaiser Bengali has
carried out a brief survey of such plans (Bengali 1999).
The first five year plan (1955-1960) set out to establish 4000 new schools in
addition to 15,602 in existence. Moreover, school enrollment was to be increased to 1
million (from 43 to 49 percent). The second one (1960-65) envisaged opening up 15,200
new primary schools in addition to the 18000 in existence (only 2,400 were added
earlier). The third one (1965-70) proposed setting up 42,500 schools in West Pakistan
which would mean and additional enrollment of 2.8 million children in primary schools.
The fifth plan (1978-83) aimed at the enrollment of all boys in class 1 and increasing
girls‘ enrollment from 33 to 45 per cent. The sixth plan (1983-88) proposed the
utilization of mosques as schools upto class 3; increasing enrollment to 75 percent from
48 per cent and launching a mass literacy programme covering 15 million persons. The
seventh plan (1988-93) proposed providing access to every child in the age group of 5 to
9 access to a school within a radius of 1.5 kilometers by 1992-93. The Eight plan (1993-
98) promised a primary school for a settlement of 300 people and a mosque school for
smaller settlements. Moreover, the primary participation rate for boys was to be raised
from 84.8 to 95.5 per cent and girls from 53 to 48 per cent. The perspective plan (1988-
2003), given in chapter 2 of the Seventh Five year plan had the objective of eradicating
‗illiteracy among youth---through full enrollment of the primary population‘ (p-23). It
was also proposed that ‗the emphasis on educational and manpower planning will have to
be shifted in favour of technical education and skill development---‘ (ibid, 25).
The targets they laid out were generally not achieved in each plan as envisaged.
However, much was achieved as far as the expansion of educational facilities is
concerned. Despite the pressure of population the literacy has gone up form 16 per cent in
1951 to 51.6 per cent in 2003. During the same period the number of primary schools has
gone up from 8000 to 170,000 and the enrollment in these from 0.77 million to 20 million