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Society
Filling Schools in Sindh
by Zofeen T Ebrahim
November 13, 2005
Gauda Hussain
from Shikarpur, Sindh has got his three children enrolled in a school
this year. He'd heard about the enrolment campaign, seen banners around
town, even seen announcements on television. But he had not thought of
enrolling his own children, until a teacher from the local government
school visited his house and convinced him.
Rehmani is also sending her youngest daughter to a school about 2
kilometres from her village. "I didn't educate my other six daughters
and now they are too old. But I don't want my last one to miss this
opportunity to better her life. Now that we know we don't have to pay
for tuitions and textbooks, it is a big burden off us."
For children living on the fringes of poverty, the primary school
enrolment campaign initiated by the Sindh government in collaboration
with UNICEF has given them a real shot at education. According to UNICEF
figures, half the children between the ages of 5 and 9 in Sindh, one of
Pakistan's four provinces, are out of school. There are serious gender
and urban-rural disparities. Only 47 per cent of girls in the rural
areas of Sindh go to school, compared to 71 per cent boys. Rural Sindh,
in fact, lags behind other parts of the country in almost all education
indicators.
There are a number of social and infrastructure problems that keep girls
in Sindh out of schools. Many schools are too far away from their home.
Where schools do exist, many are shelter-less and lack basic facilities,
including water and toilets. Absenteeism, frequent transfers and fewer
female teachers compound the problem. Even parents who want to send
their girls to school are faced with issues of the safety of girls,
especially if they have to travel long distances. The non-availability
of middle and secondary schools is also cited by parents as a reason for
not sending their girls to primary schools. Also, schools tend to have
non-flexible calendars, which do not allow for leave to take care of
siblings, harvesting or family events.
The government seemed unsure about how to proceed. This is when UNICEF
stepped in, in 2004, with a pilot project to promote girls' education in
four districts of Sindh. This Sindh government-UNICEF partnership
achieved excellent results in just one year, when more than 30,000 girls
were enrolled in four districts. (Many, in fact, were enrolled even
after the admission period was officially over.)
This unprecedented success with education for girls was achieved through
a mass awareness programme launched through radio messages and social
mobilisation at the district levels. Teachers, headmasters, preachers
from mosques and healthcare workers were all involved in the campaign.
The recruitment of boy scouts for interpersonal communication activities
also worked well. Along with this strong communication strategy, an
Education for All plan was developed for interim support, based on a
household survey conducted by UNICEF's partners. Orientation and
training programmes were also organised for female teachers. UNICEF also
provided funding for the installation of hand pumps, and the
construction and repair of latrines.
The success of the pilot project convinced the Sindh Department of
Education to try some of the successful strategies in all districts of
Sindh. With technical and financial support from UNICEF, a strategy was
designed and implemented for celebrating August 2005 as 'Enrolment
Month'. The campaign began on August 1 and went on well past
mid-September.
Slogans - 'Educate your children, enrol them in schools'; 'Educate your
daughters, avail scholarships for girls'; 'Education is free' - could be
heard throughout the province. Stickers and pamphlets were distributed,
which even those who could not read were eager to snap up. A rally - led
by officials from the education departments, political and community
leaders, teachers and students - swelled by the minutes, with more and
more people joining in. They passed through alleys and service lanes,
making sure the message was heard in each and every house in the
village. Similar rallies were organised in all districts of Sindh during
the campaign.
In many towns, the cable and national television channels, FM channels,
print media and advertisements on rickshaws were used to relay various
announcements. Messages about free tuition and textbooks, uniforms not
being compulsory and encouraging families to enrol their primary
school-age children in government schools were all over town.
Teachers cleaned and beautified schools to welcome the new entrants. "It
was a good way to celebrate the start of a new phase of life for the
children who are stepping into formal learning," says Raana Syed, Chief,
Sindh Field Office, adding: "It, in a way, acknowledges and honours
information and knowledge."
In the process, some schools got their toilets repaired and some were
white-washed perhaps for the first time. In Parha Colony, Tharparkar
district, the beautification was carried out by the Kolhi tribe (a Dalit
Hindu community). "This backward community will be encouraged to seek
education too. Events like this are a message to all communities that
education is an equal right," said Headmaster Mashooq Umrani.
Syed believes that the success of their campaign has broken the myth
that parents in rural areas do not put a premium on educating their
daughters. "There is a small (and fortunately diminishing) segment that
still believes in early marriages and put children to work to substitute
family income. However, increasingly, there is a growing realisation
among communities that education is the key to breaking the cycle of
poverty."
Octogenarian Saeeda Haji, for one, knows the need to educate the girl
child. She enrolled her two granddaughters in primary school. "It will
benefit not just them, but the generations to come," she says wisely.
Numbers are still being tabulated and statistics tallied, but
indications are that a substantial number of children have been enrolled
as a result of the Enrolment Month campaign. The real challenge, though,
lies ahead - keeping the enrolled children in school. Experience from
around the world has proven that once the matter of universal access to
education is resolved, countries face an equally daunting task -
ensuring the quality of the school system, including training the
teaching staff. The education department also faces shortage of space,
and inadequate provision of free books and teachers. If these issues are
not tackled quickly, the education department may have to begin counting
the dropout rates.
Meanwhile, some strategies are already underway, like the recruitment of
more teachers, and conducting a survey of how much furniture or
infrastructure the schools require. Providing free books on time is
another priority area.
By arrangement with
Women's Feature Service
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| Society
The Week of November 13, 2005
Will
India's Government Survive November? by Rajinder Puri
India: The Prime Minister Fettered by Dr.
Subhash Kapila
Titans in Tiny Worlds by J. Ajithkumar
Was Hinduism Invented? A Review by Aruni
Mukherjee
One Night @ The Call Center A Review by G.
Swaminathan
Towards Re-Writing A History of
Indian Architecture by Ashish Nangia
Eighteenth Century India: French and English
Rivalry by Neria Harish Hebbar, MD
What are Puranas? Are They Myths? by Dr. R.K.
Lahiri, Ph.D
Seeker's Dilemma by Vikram Karve
Healthcare for Globe Trotters by Dr. Savitha Suri
Dragons Ahoy! by Nitin Jugran Bahuguna
Filling Schools in Sindh by Zofeen T. Ebrahim
Filming People of Paradise by Atul Gupta
The New Crafts Company by Deepti Priya Mehrotra
For My Daughter by Sujata Ashwarya Cheema
The Vagabond by Dhiraj Raniga
The Mystique Land by Sai Prakash
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