Educational tiers.

Byline: Masud Butt - Lahore

I BECAME aware of an educational tier system very early in my college days, which was around the early 1950s. I matriculated from Islamia High School, Gujranwala, which was a school of good repute all round in this small town of the time.

I came back to Lahore and managed to get admission to a famous college. In our FSc (medical) section, there were students from well-known English medium schools of Lahore like Saint Anthony's and Cathedral - schools about which I did not know anything while in Gujranwala - in addition to my favourite and 'dream' Urdu medium school - Central Model High School of Lahore, the good reputation of which I was well aware, even in my small town.

One day, it so happened in a chemistry class that our teacher, just out of the blue made a remark which has stuck in my mind to this day. He announced in the class during his lecture,' I do not like boys coming from Islamia schools to our college.'

There was a round of applause for the teacher from the English medium students while we, the ones (a few) who had come from Islamia schools were sitting in the class like frightened chickens.

Come to think of it now, we were...