this is the availability of local teachers. If this issue, and it is concerned with female
teachers, can be successfully addressed then much of the cultural and social constraint
will be overcome. This is linked with the contentious issue of co-education. Five papers
discuss how far it can be applied to primary schooling in Pakistan. The paper by
Humala Khalid argues for its promotion and therefore for reversing the current pattern
of male teachers at this level - they represent some 70 per cent of the primary teachers
in Pakistan.
Female participation in primary education is also constrained by inadequate
infrastructures. For some of the papers in this section this also means the provision of
appropriate teachers, but there is also discussion of such aspects as the state of the
buildings, the provision of acceptable sanitation facilities, school walls, roads and forms
of communication. With rural areas of Pakistan being among the poorest in the world,
these physical factors are very influential one way or the other in affecting parental
decisions. Finally, several papers outline interesting innovations and projects in specific
areas, mostly involving NGOs but also the private sector.
With the size of the population of Pakistan being what it is, and the rate of increase
being maintained, both private and public sectors must work together in addressing the
problem of female participation, along with the crucial contribution of both external
and local NGOs.
AFTAB, Tahera (1994), Fighting Illiteracy: What Works and What Doesn't: A Case
Study of Female Literacy in Pakistan, Convergence 27 (4), 25-34.
This was one of the most significant papers presented at the Cairo Conference of 1994.
The author states that since independence in 1947 there has been an underinvestment in
people in Pakistan, and especially in females. She presents the paper ". to study the
complex, often subtle, ways in which norms and traditions deprive women of the
autonomy to which all human beings are entitled, and on which social and economic
development ultimately depends."
Illiteracy is highlighted as a major problem. For the women of Pakistan, illiteracy
means segregation, the creation of a separate world doomed by poverty, deprivation and
oppression. By 1990, the female literacy rate was only 22 per cent. A major cause, for
male and female alike, of high rates of illiteracy is the accessibility of schooling, but for
social and cultural reasons this constrains girls more than boys. Even once enrolled in
primary schools, about 60-70 per cent of girls drop out in the face of the pressures of
parental concern, economic need for their contribution to survival, and direct
discrimination.
At the adult education level, the gender constricted position of women in Pakistan