DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS

34
Thus the most representative of the schools for the ordinary people are the Urdu-medium
ones. These, therefore, are the ones which have been studied.
The number of all government schools is given as follows in the Economic Survey
of Pakistan (GOP 2002)
Box-3.1
Level Number Student Strength Teachers
Primary 170,000 20,000,000 335,100
Middle 19,100 3,988,000 101,200
Secondary 12,900 1,704,000 165,000
Source GOP 2003 : 105-106 for middle and secondary figures which
are from 2002. The figures for primary education are on p-159.
These numbers include Sindhi-medium government schools also. The number of
these, however, was 36,750 in 1998. The Pashto-medium primary schools were 10,731 in
1999 (field research). Thus, most of these schools are Urdu-medium ones.
These students and teachers both come from the lower-middle class. In a small
survey of 230 students and 100 teachers of Urdu-medium schools undertaken in
December 2002 and January 2003, it was discovered that they belonged to low income
groups. They were reluctant to reveal their families‘ income because of the social stigma
of poverty so that 95 (41.30 per cent) did not write their father‘s income. As for mothers,
most of them did not have paid employment so that 220 (95.65 per cent) did not write
their income. Out of those who did, most (60.74%) belonged to the poorer classes
(working and lower middle classes) (see Annexure-1).
The teachers of these schools also belong to the same class or to the to the lower
middle class (65.96%).
After ten years of schooling students sit for examinations held by the different
Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education in the country. The teaching and the
examinations are both in Urdu except in parts of (mostly rural) Sindh where they are in
Sindhi.
Schools are not accessible to all children and even where they do exist, attending
them daily requires considerable time, energy and money. According to the PIHS (2002)