DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS

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Thus, their role in universalization remains only marginal. Further, because of the use of
English as medium of instruction, and high fees structure, these institutions are better
suited to serve the requirement of the elite. Such a development is contradicted if effort is
to be directed towards the development of an egalitarian society (GOP 1998: 134).
Though the writers of the report wrote all this, nothing was actually done about
the expensive private institutions. They kept multiplying and increasing their fees
because the people of Pakistan appeared to have reconciled to paying exorbitant sums,
making huge sacrifices and ransoming their old age to pay for the education of their
children. That this state of affairs will continue is clarified by the latest report, Education
Sector Reforms: Action Plan 2001-2004 (GOP 2002 c), issued during the rule of General
Pervez Musharraf. It states that ‗Private Sector investment in secondary and higher
education is being promoted through liberal grant of charters, development of multiple
textbooks and private exam boards‘ (‗Foreword‘ by the Minister of Education, Zubaida
Jalal). Otherwise, the reforms suggested are not different from those suggested in
previous policies. There is the quantitative wish-list (literacy will go up from 49 to 60%;
primary enrollment from 66% to 76%; middle school from 47.5% to 55%; secondary
school 29.5% to 40% and higher education from 2.6% to 5%) (ibid 5). As for quality, the
report mentions ‗quality assurance‘ at a cost of 6.3 billion rupees which will comprise
curriculum reforms, teacher education, examination reforms and assessment (Ibid 35-36).
To sum up, one of the state‘s aims was to make education a vehicle for creating
nationalism. This is an aim of all modern states, and especially ex-colonies of European
powers, because nationalism has succeeded the royal dynasty as a principle of
legitimizing power. What may be called wrong in Pakistani‘s case, however, is that the
process of creating a nation involved the denial of the identity and rights of the ethnic
entities whose willingness to stay together is the only guarantee of the strength of the
federation and the creation of a unified Pakistani nation. Thus, our education system
denied ethnic diversity and, because of doing so, created further resentment and
resistance to the idea of a Pakistani nation than an accommodative, sensitive and just
policy would have produced. One cause, and perhaps a major one, of ethnicity was the
inequality of the peripheral, less powerful, ethnic groups. Thus, the denial of ethnic