PAKISTAN'S ACADEMIC HERITAGE

BORNEO BULLETIN, 31st October 1997

             Pakistan’s cultural prosperity has resulted from its unique position at the junction of three great routes: on the east from India, on the west from the Middle East and western Asia, and the third from Kashmir and Central Asia. The prosperity of a country largely depends upon the kind of education it provides to its people. Education is the most powerful instrument of change, which is important for achieving national goals through producing young minds imbued with knowledge, attitudes, skills and capabilities to shape the future destiny of the nation.

            Pakistan has been a cradle of sophisticated culture since antiquities. Taxila, the ancient city of northwestern India, the ruins of which are about 41 kilometers northwest of Islamabad – the capital of Pakistan – has been, besides being a provincial seat, also a centre of learning. It had a university town with lecture halls and residential quarters. A variety of subjects were taught at this centre of excellence. The university had acquired an international reputation in the 6^th century BC as a centre of advanced studies. Although it was not regarded as a university in the modern sense of the term, it was a great centre of learning with a number of famous teachers, each having a school of his own.

            With the advent of Islam in Central Asia and Persia, the culture in northwestern India, which is now known as Pakistan, went through some far-reaching changes. Islamic culture infiltrated from the centres of learning such as Bukhara, Samarkand, Isfahan, Jundishapur and Baghdad to this area. Islamic teachings spread fast through the width and breadth of the entire area mainly through Sufi teachings. Later on, under Muslim rule, India was consolidated and when the languages of the Muslims, namely, Arabic and later Persian, became the languages of India the area experienced a new cultural synthesis.

            India went through fast socio-religious changes during this period. Another drastic change occurred when India became a British colony. English replaced Persian and the entire academic system went through yet another set of radical changes. With the upsurge of religio-political philosophies in British India and the beginning of freedom movements, academic institutions became polarized. As nationalistic movements started appearing on the surface, the Muslims of the subcontinent, under the leadership of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, came to realize that their survival as a nation depended very largely upon developing scientific skills and adopting observation and experiment as methods of arriving at precise knowledge.

            Sir Syed Ahmad’s movement reached its climax in Allama Mohammad Iqbal, who presented a dynamic and life-affirming philosophy of education. It was both modern and forward looking and consistent with the principles and values of Islam. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who later became the founder of Pakistan, also emphasized the need for compulsory universal elementary education which should be progressive but in line with Islamic values and traditions.

            On 14^th August 1947, Pakistan emerged as the first ideological state. For the new state the initial years proved to be essentially a period of consolidation and exploration. At independence, there were only 8,900 primary schools, with an enrolment figure of 0.77 million. In 1947, Pakistan had only one university, namely the Punjab University which was founded in 1882 in Lahore. Facilities for scientific, technical and vocational education were very limited. School education had a completely theoretical orientation. Enrolment in higher education was concentrated in the liberal arts. Curricula and text-books were outdated, and the illiteracy rate was estimated to be over 85 percent.

Soon after the establishment of Pakistan, Jinnah convened an educational conference which interalia, recommended that the universalization of primary education should be achieved within a period of twenty years. Since 1947, therefore, universalization of primary education has remained one of the cherished goals of all governments in Pakistan.

Beginning in 1955, Pakistan adopted a series of five-year plans to improve economic and educational development. The constitution adopted in 1956 recognized the obligation of the state to provide education as one of the basic necessities of life. The Sharif Commission, set up in the sixties, did some valuable work and produced a report. Later there was another report by the Hamoodur Rehman Commission, which recommended more funds and better facilities for teachers and students. In March 1972, the government issued an “Education Policy 1972-80”, which stated both general and specific radical changes in the entire educational infrastructure. The National Education Policy of 1979 emphasized the need for improving vocational and technical education and for disseminating a common culture based on Islamic ideology.   

The most important objectives of the sixth five-year plan (1983-88) were: (1) to strengthen training programmes for all categories of manpower; (2) to establish technical trade schools and vocational institutes; (3) to provide adequate machinery, materials, and books for workshops, laboratories, and other facilities; and (4) to strengthen and develop centres for advanced engineering studies.

Consequently, since independence the number of primary and secondary schools, and the number of students enrolled have risen dramatically. The number of primary schools including mosque schools, as of 1993-94, is estimated to be 156,450 with an enrolment of 15,532,000 students. In addition, there are 11,445 high schools with an enrolment of 1,354,000 students. Teacher training has been promoted by the government and international agencies. The present literacy rate stands at 36.8 per cent. A ten year national Literacy Plan has also been prepared by the Federal and Provincial agencies to double the literacy rate (from 35 per cent to 70 per cent) by making 24 million illiterate persons of age ten and above literate by the year 2003.

Development of facilities for higher education has been receiving the government’s attention from the very inception of the country. Higher education is available at vocational and technical institutions, colleges and universities. Since 1947, the number of universities has risen from 1 to 29. The largest and well-known universities are Quaid-i-Azam University (1965) and Allama Iqbal University (1974) in Islamabad, the University of Peshawar, University of Karachi, Lahore University of Engineering, and NED University of Engineering (Karachi). In agriculture, there is the internationally known University of Agriculture in Faisalabad. Universities established since 1980 include the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (1980), the North-West Frontier Province Agriculture University in Peshawar (1981), the International Islamic University in Islamabad (1980), the Agha Khan University in Karachi (1983) and the Lahore University for Management Sciences (1986).

The formal education system in practice in Pakistan is more or less the same as found in most commonwealth countries. The medium of instruction in universities is English. Many of the Pakistani universities maintain close academic contact and professional co-operation with their counterparts abroad. A formal programme has also been launched to link Pakistani universities with universities in the United Kingdom. 

While efforts continue to improve facilities of higher education within the country, the government does encourage students to pursue their studies in reputed foreign institutions so as to bring into Pakistan the latest knowledge in traditional and emerging disciplines. It has a regular foreign scholarship scheme for meritorious students. Home scholarships are also awarded to talented students and stipends given to poor students at various stages of education. Scholarships are also offered to foreign students under Cultural Agreements with friendly countries. Students coming from foreign countries under these cultural agreements or on adhoc exchanges are treated as ambassadors of goodwill and friendship to Pakistan. At present, 6,100 foreign students are studying in various education institutions in Pakistan either under cultural scholarship programmes or on a self-financing basis. As the evolution of education in Pakistan shows, its education scene has begun to change.

Despite many obstacles in the path to universal literacy and education, efforts are being made to ensure that people have access to the means of transforming themselves into well-informed and innovative citizens. At the time of its creation, Pakistan did not have any viable educational infrastructure, and its literacy rate was very low. However it inherited a rich culture and a massive human resource about which the great poet-philosopher Allama Mohammad Iqbal said was full of              potential provided it was properly nurtured.