Pakistan Education Project

In 1957, Francis S. Chase, the founding Dean of the Graduate School of Education, established at the University of Chicago the “Pakistan Education Project” with support from the Ford Foundation. The purpose of the project was to improve education through teacher-training programs at extension centers in what was then East and West Pakistan and to improve facilities for students at those university campuses.
The program led to the establishment of 43 pilot secondary schools and new educational centers were organized at the University of Dhaka and Punjab University. More than 5,000 teachers and administrators were trained in the Pakistan Education Project with many Pakistani teachers coming to Chicago for their training.
From 1963 – 1973, this project was directed by Kenneth Rehage, who travelled extensively to Pakistan. He also directed the University’s Peace Corps Training Program for Pakistan in 1963.
Kenneth Rehage, Professor Emeritus in Education and a celebrated teacher, passed away this January. He was 96.
I will try and find out more about the Pakistan Education Project. Not many details are available online – though, a dissertation was written on it in 1962 by Alan Peshkin. But I will note this: In a report Kenneth Rehage wrote for the Elementary School Journal in 1958, I was struck by these words: “The influence of Sputnik was keenly felt at this conference.” The conference was on the future of high school education in America and Pakistan. Think about it.
Having worked in Pakistan in the mid-198s, the article about the work of Kenneth Rehage took on special meaning for me. That part of India which is now Pakistan was home for me as a kid and I grew up speaking Urdu. Returning later as a consultant for a World Bank Agricultural Education Program, I did not meet any of the 5000 teachers trained under that program. Have follow-up studies been done to trace the impact of that long-term project? Do Pakistani educational archives speak of it? Two articles about women and development and women’s literacy were published by Dr. Lily Chu and myself in the late 1980’s however our bibliographies did not include references to the Pakistan Project. If more is found, I would be interested to know. Harold M. Bergsma, Professor Emeritus, International Development Education, New Mexico State