DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS

56
Box 4.5
Average tuition fees per pupil per year: (rupees)
Year Primary Vernacular Anglo Vernacular European
1932-1933 Free to 2.0 1.4 22-48 75
1939-1940 Free to 1.8 1.4 25-45 87
The high cost of European schooling was justified as follows:
The cost of European Education is high compared with education in India
generally, the cost per pupil in Anglo-Indian and European Institutions being Rs.
156 against Rs. 14 only in all types of institutions from a university to a primary
school. This, however, is not altogether a valid comparison and it is to be noted in
this connection that 69 per cent of this cost is met from fees and private
donations; in other words public funds bear only 31 per cent of the expenditure
(Edn Ind 1941; 113).
Even 31 per cent of the public funds (Rs. 48.36) however, was Rs 34 more than the
average amount spent on ordinary Indian students. Moreover, ordinary Indians were too
poor to be able to afford anything but the free or cheap primary schools. The avowed
intention of these schools, as the Indian Education Commission of 1882 announced, was:
The instruction of the masses through the vernacular in such subjects as will fit
them for their position in life, and be not necessarily regarded as a portion of
instruction leading up to the University (Edn Comm 1883:586).
The vernacular secondary schools were also designed to offer a ‗complete course,‘ in
contrast to the Anglo-Vernacular schools, which did teach in English, and could lead up
to higher education (PEI 1939: 77). Higher education was expensive—the average yearly
fees in the colleges of Sindh in 1936-7 was Rs 153 and the cost per pupil was Rs 246
(RPI-S 1938: 21)---so the anglicized elite remained a narrow aristocracy.
When Pakistan was established the elitist Mohajir children coming from Englishmedium
schools in India were enrolled in similar institutions from such institutions (out
of which thirteen were in their O‘level classes) were admitted in ‗the European Schools
in Karachi‘ (Zaidi 1999: 56). In short, the parallel system of elitist schooling did not
change because of the establishment of Pakistan. Indeed, as the military and the higher