KARACHI: While everyone knows the education system was the remnant of the colonial rule (nauabadiati nizam) when the country came into being, the difference between public and private sector educational institutions caused the most harm to society, said renowned historian Dr Mubarak Ali at a book launch on Thursday evening.

He added it cleaved society into two, creating class disparities. “Students who were in Urdu medium schools wanted to learn English and those in English medium schools were proud of the fact that they didn’t speak Urdu, while the private schools had a commercial design.”

Dr Ali was chief guest at the launch of Taaleem: Masael o Afkaar, a book by Dr Jaffer Ahmed, held at the Arts Council.

He said he had known Dr Ahmed since the 1980s. The author was one of the individuals who always worked to highlight other people’s achievements and less about themselves. Most of the articles included in the book were published in an Urdu newspaper.

Dr Ali said everybody knew how a subject like education was dealt with in Pakistan. It’s good that in some parts of the country the subject of history was making a comeback, the thing that needed to be looked into whether it’s the history of the people or that of the ruling class that’s being taught, he said.

He argued it was more important to teach about ideas and thoughts than about personalities because personalities tended to become controversial. Education must be imparted on a secular basis as only then would we be able to instill open-mindedness in our students.

Journalist and poet Mahmood Shaam, who presided over the event, laced his speech with humour. He said Dr Jaffer Ahmed had published his book in secrecy much like love marriage, that too for a second time. Dr Ahmed was one of those serious-minded people who were hard to find in the world. His book ‘Taleem: Masael o Afkaar’ not only raised pertinent questions on education but also provided answers to them.

Prof Sahar Ansari said Dr Ahmed’s writings based on his research work were marked by sensitivity and compassion. The author did not theorise; his research was a result of working in the field. During Gen Musharraf’s rule, he had given some worthwhile suggestions in order to revamp the curricula for classes ranging from primary to post-graduate, but the bureaucracy didn’t let that happen. An important aspect of his book was that he had written about how education featured in the manifestos of different political parties of Pakistan. One of the author’s significant conclusions was that Pakistans not a social welfare state but a national security state.

Dr Ahmed said Dr Ali was the chief motivating force behind ‘Taaleem: Masael o Afkaar’. He was the one who asked him to compile his articles into a book. He told the attendees that he was fortunate that from his student life he was able to interact with able seniors who gave a direction to his life and made him choose the path of humanism and a classless society.

Muslim Shamim lauded the publication of the book and pointed out Dr Ahmed’s valuable efforts in highlighting the services of great visionaries such as Sibt-i-Hasan, Zamir Niazi and Hasan Abidi. He called him a genius.

Dr Fatima Hasan highlighted that the book should be read by policymakers and by those who were related to the field of education.

Prof Dr Tauseef Ahmed said unlike English newspapers, their Urdu counterparts did not publish articles based on hard facts and quality research work. Dr Ahmed’s pieces in the paper from where they had been taken for the book had lent credibility to Urdu journalism in that respect.

Dr Sher Shah Syed, shedding light on the plight of education in Pakistan, recalled that he once met an Indian, the secretary of the Communist Party, who was born in Jhelum, Pakistan. The man told him that the education scenario in Pakistan was appalling, because when he visited his school in Jhelum, from where he had acquired education till class IX before the partition, he found it in a dilapidated state; whereas in India the number of schools was increasing at rapid pace.

Anis Zaidi conducted the programme.