This paper argues that the state of education in rural areas of Pakistan indicate an urgent need for policies which will improve the poor performance of existing schools. Social engineering to address gender and class imbalances, laudable though this may be, is counter productive to the immediate need for an elevation in existing basic standards of education. To this end, this paper suggests that educational reforms which do not attempt to challenge popularly held notions of gender and status would produce successful results which might then pave the way for more ambitious programmes in future.