DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS

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35 most children travel less than 2 kms and very few travel more than 5 kms to their schools. However, girls do have to travel long distances in Balochistan and Sindh which is difficult and unsafe for them. Schools are very dull and stringent places, often painted blue, and with broken glass panes. They are highly regimented with semi-educated teachers forcing their pupils to memorize passages out of badly written, badly printed and extremely dull books. Classrooms are overcrowded with 41 girls and 38 boys per teacher in the primary schools of all provinces except Balochistan. In Balochinstan, the most deprived province of all, there are 48 girls per teacher (PIHS 2002). After ten years of schooling students sit for examinations held by the different Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education. Most of the examination papers are in Urdu (except in Sindh where they are in Sindhi) and English is like a sieve which separates the ‗sheep‘ from the ‗goats‘. Influences of Textbooks on Urdu-medium School Students Textbooks are one out of many influences on a person‘s worldview. How significant the influence may be depends on many variables---teachers, peer group pressure, family and friends, childhood experiences, exposure to discourses other than textbooks---and cannot be easily determined. What can be determined, however, is the intention of the writers of textbooks; the policy guidelines of those who get the textbooks written; and the values which the educational authorities responsible for writing and disseminating textbooks in educational systems support. In general these values belong to the ‗in-group‘ i.e. they are values and perceptions which support one‘s own group: nation, ethnic group, religious group, ideological group etc. This necessitates the creation of an ‗out-group‘ or ‗Other‘ which must be held in opposition to the self. The ‗Other‘ is generally created on the basis of selective data and in this process of creation it is transformed. It may either be romanticized or demonized. Edward Said in his book Orientalism (1978) tells us how the European scholars of the Orient created an image of the ‗Other‘ which made it the ‗Other‘ of the Occident. Said further postulates that this justified the conquest of the Orient in order to ‗civilize‘ it.
36 Most of the 25,995,068 (GOP 2002: 146) students, being from Urdu-medium schools, study the textbooks provided by the Textbook Boards of the provinces (Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, Balochistan) which constitute Pakistan. Ethnicity is denied so as to create a Pakistani identity although these centrist policies have been resented by ethnic communities and have resulted in the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 but still the textbooks reinforce them (for ethnic politics see Amin 1988; Rahman 1996 and Ahmed 1998). There is also much glorification of war and the military and many anti-Hindu and anti-India remarks and together bias interspersed throughout the books (for detailed analysis see Aziz 1993; Hoodbhoy and Nayyar 1995; Saigol 1995; and Rahman 2002: 515-524. For a comparison between the history textbooks of India and Pakistan see Kumar 2001). The Objectives of the State The Government of Pakistan lays down certain objectives for the teaching of various subjects. These are often ideological. They use Islam as a marker of identity to define the boundaries of the self. The ‗Other‘ is, by definition, non-Muslim. However, this notion of Islam is so tempered with nationalism as to exclude Indian Hindus rather than non-Muslims who are friendly with Pakistan. Here is an abstract from the objectives laid down in different instructional books from the Ministry of Education. Box 3.2 SOCIAL STUDIES To inculcate the unflinching love for Islam and Pakistan, strong sense of national cohesion, and state integrity. To promote understanding of socio-economic and socio-cultural aspects of Pakistani society, the Ideology of Pakistan and struggle for freedom. (GOP 2002a). History of Pakistan To evaluate the Islamization effort by various Governments in perspective of an Islamic ideological framework.
Page 1 and 2: DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS: A Study o
Page 3 and 4: 2 List of Abbreviations Glossary Pr
Page 5 and 6: 4 Jihad Madrassa Maktab Maulvi Muns
Page 7 and 8: 6 being unsupported by any institut
Page 9 and 10: 8 CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION There are
Page 11 and 12: 10 Another book, by Naseem Jaffer Q
Page 13 and 14: 12 Let us keep in mind that Pakista
Page 15 and 16: 14 ones. There is much new data in
Page 17 and 18: 16 quarters with the sole object of
Page 19 and 20: 18 capable of being employed in sub
Page 21 and 22: 20 (GOP 2003: 159). Examples of the
Page 23 and 24: 22 It was in this document that the
Page 25 and 26: 24 Because of such laws, academics
Page 27 and 28: 26 strengthening unity of the ou
Page 29 and 30: 28 Thus, their role in universaliza
Page 31 and 32: 30 whereas provincial government sc
Page 33 and 34: 32 Dr. Qurat began this work in 199
Page 35: 34 Thus the most representative of
Page 39 and 40: 38 Class-6 Class-7 Class-8 Class-9
Page 41 and 42: 40 Conclusion: the Muslims from the
Page 43 and 44: 42 B.A (B. Ed) 16 14,099 Headmaster
Page 45 and 46: 44 abroad. Their families are conse
Page 47 and 48: 46 possible that Pakistan and India
Page 49 and 50: 48 Gender-wise Tabulation of Attitu
Page 51 and 52: 50 the madrassas and those whose pa
Page 53 and 54: 52 charge tuition ranging between R
Page 55 and 56: 54 schools, whether the administrat
Page 57 and 58: 56 Box 4.5 Average tuition fees per
Page 59 and 60: 58 non-elitist schools, as we have
Page 61 and 62: 60 parents of the Badin PAF Model S
Page 63 and 64: 62 national language is given at be
Page 65 and 66: 64 Aitchison 196 Kohat 144 Larkana
Page 67 and 68: 66 Militancy Among Cadet College/Pu
Page 69 and 70: 68 These figures should be taken wi
Page 71 and 72: 70 Box 4.14 Tolerance Among Elitist
Page 73 and 74: 72 1997 21 34 1998 20 31 Source: An
Page 75 and 76: 74 children mostly speaking in Khan
Page 77 and 78: 76 world. This war is represented a
Page 79 and 80: 78 This fluency and spontaneity in
Page 81 and 82: 80 believed—that the best ideas w
Page 83 and 84: 82 English novels filling us up on
Page 85 and 86: 84 The Peripatetic Tutor Arif Khan
Page 87 and 88:
86 CHAPTER-5 MADRASSAS The madrassa
Page 89 and 90:
88 Box 5.2 Sect-Wise Increase in th
Page 91 and 92:
90 (Sharia) was the path to mystica
Page 93 and 94:
92 modern subjects in some measure
Page 95 and 96:
94 taught there, even now---and the
Page 97 and 98:
96 controversial issues‘ (Ibid, p
Page 99 and 100:
98 appalling poverty of rural, peri
Page 101:
100 students and 1000 day students,
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DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS

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