Following photo is courtesy of _tunnel_. The photo was taken on May 14, 2008 in Malir, Karachi. Private educational institutions have become big business in Pakistan, but this picture is also about so much more. What comes to your mind when you see this?
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While All Things Pakistan has remained alive and online, it has been dormant since June 11, 2011 - when, on the blog's 5th anniversary, we decided that it was time to move on. We have been heartened by your messages and the fact that a steady traffic has continued to enjoy the archived content on ATP. While the blog itself will remain dormant, we are now beginning to add occasional (but infrequent) new material by the original authors of the blog, mostly to archive what they may now publish elsewhere. We will also be updating older posts to make sure that new readers who stumble onto this site still find it useful.
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Statistics suggest private schools and universities are doing a better and more efficient job of providing education in Pakistan, at lower cost than the government sector. As I learnt this Saturday at HDF’s 2nd Annual Convention (held in Chicago actually), 35% of enrollees in schools in Pakistan go to private institutions and they charge very modest fees on average. To the extent that government schools and universities cannot fill the demand for education, there is no shame in private institutions popping up, regardless of name and association. The situation is not ideal but lets deal with the way things are and focus on what is demanded and what seems to work.
I am privileged to know Dr Wasiullah Khan and others like Zafar Malik who’ve built East-West University into an institution the majority of whose students are the first ones in their family to go to college. If any institution is to be emulated, this is a good one to pick.
“Private educational institutions have become big business in Pakistan,”
Yes, that’s right.
“but this picture is also about so much more. ”
Can you please let us know what’s “so much more”? I don’t understand the big deal in this picture. There are tons of similar sights which can be found throughout Pakistan. A drive through any area of the city (of Karachi) will result in dozens of such images. There is literally no big deal about this picture.
“What comes to your mind when you see this?”
What comes to my mind is that Pakistaniat blog had nothing else to post about so they tried to make a story out of a simple picture. This is a non-story.
Don’t see what the big fuss is about. Its probably an OK school and even the association with Chicago maybe legit (even if it isn’t that is not extraordinary). I’m even impressed with the tire shop dudes – one is reading and the other seems deep in thought.
Surprised that people find the picture deceptive.
It is clear to anyone that the tire shop is different from the University, but it is the juxtaposition of the two and the thoughts that raises about the standard of educational institutions that make the picture noteworthy. Otherwise, it would just be a billboard.
I live close by that building. They got these boards on for the last year or two, but I have yet to see any student around.
That tire shop has nothing to do with the building. The picture is very deceptive.