In a meeting for Take Back Pakistan (TBP) several weeks ago, a gentleman approached our group and asked for help with his school at Shirin Jinnah Colony. Apparently, his school, run under the aegis of the Baseer Foundation, has been struggling for almost 10 years through lack of financial aid. Mr. Baseer himself attended our meeting to appeal for funds, or time, to take over the school, or to find sources of aid to help the school continue. He’s an elderly gentleman who has spent his life in the Pakistan Army, and upon retirement, he began an ambitious plan to bring relief to the poorer sections of our society. He calls it ‘Social Responsibility’.
Now, its impossible to say that enough is being done for the poor – the affected are too many, the resources too few, and any social welfare program, private or public, is often welcomed by the Pakistani public. So it surprised us to hear that Mr. Baseer was rebuffed in all his endeavors to raise funds for his Foundation. He had two schools in some of the poorest areas of Karachi (Mauripur and Shirin Jinnah), and the bulk of his funding came from his own pocket, or from members of his family. The schools provided free education, and included vocational training for adults, and free medical care. The concept was noble, and we came up with suggestions on how to raise funds.
I was knee-deep into the KaraFilm Festival when Mr. Baseer approached TBP, so I had to step out of the situation myself. My mother, however, took it upon herself to donate her time to the school. As a retired teacher with over 20 years of experience, she managed to bring in other teachers also willing to donate time or funds to the cause. And then, she visited the school.
The school is situated in a rented building next to railway tracks and not far from a heavy-goods and oil truck stand. It’s not a large building, big enough for a few classes. They offer primary school education (up to class 5) only (according to Mr. Baseer, this should be sufficient to help lower income families get on their feet). The school provides books and writing material, none of which the children may take home with them; the textbooks are hopelessly out of date. Apparently, the owner of the building refuses to let them paint the walls or drive nails into them, so there are no blackboards, no diagrams, no teaching aids. Because the premises are small, sports are limited to indoor activities, such as volleyball, or very, very short sprints. Citing limited financial means as a reason, no sweepers or cleaning staff are hired at the school. The children are expected to take up these duties along with school work. Capital punishment is very much alive and flourishing here.
Teachers are mostly young girls, hired at salaries of Rs. 2000/- a month, and the promise of Montessori school training (which they will receive if they sign a 5-year bond with the school). After 4 months at the school, a teacher is considered qualified enough to train new teachers.
In the vocational skills section, they have mostly young girls from the neighborhood. The skills being taught to them? Hemming. They spend hours in the vocational training building learning to sew the edges of handkerchiefs.
My mother has not visited the Baseer Foundation Clinic.
All of these shortcomings can be attributed to a lack of funds – Mr. Baseer could be lauded for struggling on in his quest. Except, he has the funds to open a new school in Neelam Colony, and he has already started preparations to do so.
When we suggested to him that he might improve the current school before opening a new one, he was offended and we were rebuffed. He doesn’t believe that children from lower income schools deserve anything more than the barest minimum – he thinks it would be wiser to open multiple schools with no quality of education, no standards, but with a widespread reach. He thinks this is a far more effective way to educate the populace. He refused to consider the possibility that a family whose main concern is food, would benefit from at least one member being able to do more than 5th grade math. Or the probability that education to the 5th level, and that too education that inspires fear, not a love of learning, is of no use to someone without access to libraries, the internet, or any source of self-improvement. He refuses to see that education to the 5th grade is only useful when someone wants to get into the 6th grade, and is of no help in acquiring white collar jobs; or that learning to sew the edges of a handkerchief will be of no consequence whatsoever to any of the girls in his “vocational” training institute, escept making sure they can serve their husbands better.
His sole objective is to open as many schools as possible, and offer a maximum of 5th grade education, for free, to the lowest income groups he can find. This, he firmly believes, will change their fates.
Well, guess what, Mr. Baseer? Someone’s already tried the same experiment and failed miserably. It’s called the Pakistan Government Public School System. It’s more widespread than you could ever hope to be, and believe it or not, even their standards are higher than yours. They haven’t been successful in raising standards of living, or even standards of education. And it’s become clear to me now why in ten years, you have been unable to fund your ideas beyond your own family members.
More and more now, I am dragged down by the implacability of vision, the immovable ideologies that allow for nothing but one train of thought at a time. More and more now, I am terrified that the only path left open to this nation is anarchy, failing which, we will bow down to the inevitability of talibanization, because the alternative is single-minded self-aggrandizement of people like Mr. Baseer, the Sharifs, the Bhuttos, the Zardaris, and the whole clan that runs this country.