ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Continuing political upheavals, a financial crisis and traditional Moslem attitudes have produced a crushing effect on mass education in Pakistan, where experts estimate only 8 percent of the population is literate.

The martial-law administration of Pakistan, which normally appropriates only 1 percent or less of the national budget for education, is expected to reduce spending for education even more during the coming fiscal year.

By comparison, military spending, normally about 40 percent of the budgets is expected too rise sharply, partly because an occupation army is now stationed in East Pakistan and partly because of fears of a war with India.

EDUCATORS PESSIMISTIC

Even before the crisis in East Pakistan began in March, many educators here regarded prospects for mass education in Pakistan as hopeless.

A bulletin issued one year ago by the Education Ministry said, "The extension of literacy is a precondition for success in any sphere of development." But, the bulletin added, "The attainment of the goal seems to have receded further and further with the lapse of time, and Pakistan today has one of the highest rates of illiteracy in the world."

Of higher education the bulletin said:

The present situation in our colleges and universities is a cause for grave concern. The academic standards are showing a steady decline deterioration under the pressure of expansion."

In Pakistan even at the primary-school level, education is neither compulsory nor free. Although tuitions is nominal in primary schools---the equivalent of about 50 cents a month - even such small fees are too much for many large families with subsistence incomes.

AUSTERITY MEASURES ENACTED

Recently the Government enacted a, series of austerity measures that increased the cost of many imports by 200 percent. Books have been classified as luxury items and the increase in their cost, is staggering.

Underlying the problem in the eyes of many foreign educators and local liberal educators, is the traditional Moslem view of education, the purpose of which in earlier societies was mainly to read and study the holy Koran.

There is deep suspicion of the idea of mass education, particularly of the kind advocated in the Western Worlds Education is frequently blamed for the recent bloody secessionist upheaval in East Pakistan.

CRITICISM OF THE EDUCATED

Maulana Syed Abdul Ala Maudoodi, leader of an ultra- right-wing Islamic political party, said several weeks ago, "Bengal separatism was started by a particular section of Bengali nationalists who had been taught and educated in the colleges and universities, mostly by Hindu professors, and had no education in Islamic teachings."

Various Islamic texts on Pakistani education quote the Prophet Mohammed, who was himself illiterate: To instruct those unworthy of knowledge is like putting pearls, jewels and gold on the neck of swine."

This has given rise to what foreign educators in Pakistan describe as an elitist system of education, in which the few resources available for education are spent mainly at the university level.

In the last decade, annual Government spending on education for the university student has averaged $500 per student. Government spending for the primary student has averaged less than $3 a year.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES LACKING

The heavy emphasis on university spending has not been matched by job opportunities in the professions. It is estimated that 200,000 persons with university educations cannot get jobs.

With population pressures and poverty increasing, the primary school system is threatened with extinction According to statistics compiled by one foreign mission here, of every 100 children who enter the first grade, only 8 go through the fifth grade.

A mixture of despair and a feeling of Pakistani hostility has driven off many foreign educational missions in the country.

The Fulbright program, which for the last three years has not been used in Pakistan, virtually closed its mission here a few weeks ago .

An education team of the United States Agency for International Development that had been stationed in East Pakistan was withdrawn during the March crisis and there are no prospects for its return.

The United States has spent a total of more than $4-billion in aid to Pakistan, mostly for industrial and agricultural development. The increment for education has been only about $500,000 a year. By comparison, neighboring Afghanistan has received about $3-million dollars a year in American educational aid.