Sameer Nazir
KARACHI/THATTA: Legislators, members of civil society and parents of the girl students availing middle school education facility by international donor agencies “DAI” and UK aid in Sujawal district have called upon the stakeholders not to discontinue the services till the achievement of their academic task.
PPP MPA Rehana Laghari, ex MPAs Humaira Alwani, Chetan Mal and others in their separate representations they sent to the stakeholders have appealed that the pre-mature suspension of on to the girl students being run by “Ilm Ideas” a sub managing agency based in Islamabad would ultimately hamper the future of under education girls.
This may be mentioned here that a local organization have been entrusted by the “Ilm Ideas” to impart secondary education to the dropped out primary girl students in 18 remote villages of Sujawal district since last two years.
The academic activity so inspired the village people that even those who withdrawn their girls after completion of their primary education from the only available village schools and discontinued further education due to location of secondary schools far away from their villages as well as on traditional and superstitious grounds rejoined the secondary education being run by a local organization in financial assistance of Ilm Ideas.
Recently the receipt of information about discontinuation of secondary school education facility prior to completion of the core objective of the project has created unrest amongst the parents and to be affected students.
In this regard the parents and some 550 under educating students took out a procession in Sujawal town on Tuesday appealing the authorities to help continue their secondary education.
Getting highly grieved and disappointed hundreds of the parents along with girl students of 18 villages of Taluka Sujawal District Sujawal stand crowded at the Sujawal-Badin road to convey their moan that being shown the dream of completing their middle school education from class 6 to 8 the Islamabad based renowned institute Ilm Ideas has broken their dreams by quitting at the middle of their educational journey which was restored after years.
The community members of the affected villages said to the media men that two years ago Ilm Ideas with a local partner started working for providing the middle school education of the dropped out girls of far off villages of Taluka Sujawal who had passed their primary education 4-5 years ago and due to non availability of middle and high school nearby their home quitted their education.
Students of a heterogeneous age group said that this opportunity had brought back on the path of education once again and they learnt a lot in the community coaching centers set by their philanthropists at their doorsteps and started dreaming for their bright educational future.
They said that after passing two years the “Ilm Ideas” has refused to complete their education i.e middle school education and are quitting amid their educational journey leaving them distressed and hopeless.
Mst. Khatoo a mother of the disabled student Naseeban studying in class VII at village Kate Jakhra said that it was the only hope for her daughter to complete her middle school education and get enabled for higher education but now the dreams are fallen flat.
They said that above 550 villager girls were enrolled and studying in the community coaching centers including young mothers and some disabled girls.
The parents and affected girls appealed the Ilm Ideas authorities to sympathetically look into the matter and on pure humanitarian ground and the middle school education of the girls under the programme may be completed as per their promise.
When Contacted with District Education Officer (HQ) Asif Ali Qureshi said, that this would be great loss for the girls students of remote areas, as they will not be able to continue their education.
He said, That district education department had provided full support to the UKAID and Ilm-Ideas for the better education arrangements of students and centers were running with nice progress. The student discontinuation is not understandable.
550 school girls lost their educational path in Thatta
