Fourteen-year-old Asim was back selling vegetables at his family-owned shop after an absence of a whole year. It was a sight for sore eyes. There he sat boastfully reading the headlines from an Urdu newspaper to the chicken seller who shares shop space. A year ago Asim could not read or write and was humiliated by a customer because he could not read a list of produce nor write a bill.
The beginning of teenage is a time when a person is highly sensitive. Asim told his father he wanted to go to school. The green grocer had never thought about educating his son. Since the age of twelve Asim was left in charge of the shop, which the lad managed ably, while the father sold vegetables from a pushcart in the streets of DHA IV. Schools are expensive, even government schools find ways to squeeze money for this and that from the students. Then there are other expenses besides school fees, such as uniform, shoes, text books and exercise books and satchel, which have to be purchased annually for a growing child as he or she moves up from one grade to the next. Even though the vegetable business was thriving Asim's father could not afford to send his son to a school.
But being a practical man, as indeed all shopkeepers and small traders are, Asim's father looked for someone who would tutor his son; teach him to read, write and do some basic maths. On his rounds through the streets and lanes of DHA IV he would ask if there was anyone who would tutor his son. A retired bank clerk, aged 80, who came to the green grocer's shop, offered to do so for a monthly fee of Rs 1,000. The old gent knew he was asking a high price, but he promised to make Asim literate in just one year. From 8am to 1pm Asim was put through a punishing exercise. From his own resources the old gent purchased a sheaf of exercise books in which the student practised writing and did sums. A secondhand textbook of Urdu for Class V was also purchased. In terms of what was achieved, this was a small investment. In just Rs 1000 (no tutoring during Ramazan) Asim not only became literate but could read fluently, write a neat hand; at maths he was already quite proficient being a seller of vegetables, but now he could write the numbers (Rs 5 for green chillies, say).
I know of no school where a child can be taught the basics of literacy so quickly and efficiently and at such low cost. Most schools are commercial enterprises. A child can spend four years from Class-I onward and yet only stammer out what he reads and write childish crooked letters. Maths is a mystery to most school kids. Except for the highly expensive posh school for the elite, the rest of the public thinks sending their children to schools run in two-room apartments or a garrage or a government school building is the only affordable proposition. How mistaken they are. In actual fact they would have spent more money in four years than Asim's father spent in one.
There is altogether too much emphasis on school education. Practical education is hardly achieved, involving action rather than theory and methodology. What is taught is actually of no use. Thousands of children remain illiterate because schools are unaffordable. Many drop out because they are needed to help earn the family income. In the days I earned well I sent two working class boys to school. One dropped out after class nine, the other after first year Intermediated. Both were bright boys but all my persuasion did not make them study further. They had to support the family. I realised schooling was actually quite useless. Our education system does not prepare children for real life. The one who studied till first year Intermediate I met many years later. He told me he could not find a job. He was selling religious books. His name is Ghulam Rasool; he was well known to the Karachi Press Club domestic staff, and one of them told me he was seen selling pictures made of straw on black cloth. So much for the value of schooling. Alas.
Look at the number of government-run ghost schools. They are all in areas where people work at small traders or labour in fields. The educationists still continue to emphasis the need for schools. This has not been a practical idea. This kind of education is a heist, an exploitation of the common man and a waste of money. Basic literacy is all one needs to get going. If you are ambitious you can read books and teach yourself some practical skill or craft. As long as we have short-sighted baboos running the Ministry of Education, this country will not prosper.
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