Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Pakistani madrasas

...What is not challenged is that the madrasas exist because of the country's appalling record on state education. In contrast to its neighbor, India, one administration after another has allowed the educational system the British built up to disintegrate. It has been saved by two developments. The first is the madrasas, which offer at least some education to the poor. And at the other pole, there is the astonishing success of the Beaconhouse school system, which began as a single playgroup 30 years ago and, thanks to the drive of one exceptional woman, has mushroomed into a school system all over the country that extends from kindergarten to university, with some 60,000 students. I lectured for two days to nearly a thousand of its teachers, and I have rarely come across a group exuding such dedication. But this is private education catering almost exclusively to the children of the elite....

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