Maria Khushk | Hydeabad

University life is full of hopes and happiness, students study in university for different hopes, different dreams, and for different purposes. Where many students dream of learning, many students want to enjoy their adult life and few need a degree for a simple job, and in many cases girls wanted education for a better future.

The story begins with young girl Paras who lives in a remote rural area of Sindh where it was difficult for girls to get higher education from a small town. One day, Paras’ brother came home with news that the university is conducting admission test.

“Amma, it’s my dream to be an officer and make you and baba proud of me.” Ahmed said proudly.

Amma was stitching a button on her son’s shirt and said, “I pray for my son to be an officer.”

“And what about me?” Paras overheard the conversation of her brother and mother and interrupted from Kitchen.

“The house chores are the only place for daughters’ and we are looking for a suitable boy for you.” Amma said while folding the shirt.

“Amma, why? Why can’t I get education? Just because I’m a girl. Will my gender decide whether I should get higher education or to become illiterate like you?” Paras argued politely.

“Behave yourself.” Amma said in an angry tone.

Amma got up from the cot and headed towards the kitchen. While Ahmed quietly listened to her sister’s arguments and didn’t react. Paras followed and continuously tried to convince her mother to stand for her right.

“Amma, getting education is my right and I want to be an officer as Ahmed wanted to be. I too will make you and baba proud.”

“Peel these onions off and cut into slices,” Amma handed the basket full of onions to her.

“I’ll but please listen to me first.”

Amma ignored Para’s questions and remained busy with something, but Paras continued, “Amma, why are you doing this to me? Am I not your daughter? I just want education, nothing wrong I need.”

“Talk to you baba.” Amma answered.

In the evening, Paras went to give a cup of tea to her brother. When she knocked on his door and went inside – Paras saw Ahmed was studying for a test and books were spread on the table. When she turned back. Ahmed called her.

“Yes, Ahmed, Do you need anything?”

“Yes,” Ahmed handed a book to her and continued, “Read this book; it will help you out to pass your test.”

“But,” Ahmed cut off Paras’s who uttered something and continued, “Discuss the matter with baba and I’ll help you in every process.”

When baba, came back home from the field work he lay down in his cot. Paras offered a glass of water to him. “Baba, I want permission.” Paras sat down beside her father. “Yes, beta.”

“Baba, the word “beta” usually refers to a boy.”

“Yes.” Baba drank some water.

“Baba then why I cannot get higher education like Ahmed; if I’m your son,” Paras raised a serious question for those thousands of girls who want to get education but cannot due to their parents and for their mindsets. Paras’s father became as silent as a stone and became unmovable as a statue. Maybe her father was thinking the same question, why cannot they allow their daughter for education?

“Baba, answer me.” Paras asked politely.

Her mother interrupted saying to her father, “I asked Adi Hajra to bring the family of a boy by tomorrow. If you find suitable then we will say yes to them.”

“Baba, I really want to get education. After that I will marry whomever you will ask.”

Father placed his hand on Paras’s head and allowed her for higher education but he faced many difficulties like people’s unbearable and unwanted comments. “Who will marry her daughter?” One of them said, “Is he insane?” One of them said, “I don’t want to talk to a person who wants to give higher education to her daughter.”

Paras reached the city along with her brother and appeared in the entry test, and passed the exam with great marks. She enrolled herself in the university, but she didn’t know the other difficulties were waiting for her.

Paras wore a simple dress and covered her head with a hijab and flip flop in her feet, as she didn’t have enough money to buy something new for herself. She regularly attended her classes and was a very hard worker too. She studied hard day and night to make her parents proud as she promised them, and there was one more reason for working hard: the current situation of her father who was facing in the village and she wanted to give them a shut up call.

One evening, when Paras was working at home assignment, her phone buzzed.  She picked up phone to check out the message, “Hey, How are you?” to her surprise, it was her male teachers’ message.

“Why did he text me at this time?” Paras murmured herself.

She replied politely, “Yes, sir,” as she did not know the purpose of his message.

Paras received another message in the blink of an eye, “I know, you are living in the hostel and no one is your roommate yet.”

“What? How did he know that much about me? And what’s his purpose for sending me such a message?” Paras saw her teacher’s message and wondered a while.

Another buzzing of the phone completely shocked her, “If you want to pass my subject then you have to meet me outside of the university or even in my office and if you show or share my messages to anyone then you wouldn’t pass your subject throughout the semester.”

Paras was already worried about her villagers who usually tease her father on a daily basis. She didn’t solve her first problem and she stuck with another. She picked phone to inform her brother, then suddenly, something ran in her mind, “If I let Ahmed know about my current situation then he wouldn’t allow me to appear in my exam and definitely he will send me home. What should I do? I’ll work hard and pass Sir’s exam.” She put back her phone and started studying.

Next day, teacher asked the Paras in class to meet in his office, saying “I have to discuss something about your assignment.” Paras was completely puzzled by the teacher’s behavior. She was stuck whether to go or not to go. If she will go to his office, it would hurt her image, and if she doesn’t go then she would fail the exam and it would hurt her image too. Even she was not able to share her problems with any of her teachers because teachers support each other and they will never listen to her without proof, and even if she proves, they won’t listen to her. On the result day, Paras got “A” in every subject but she got “F” in the subject taught by that teacher.

Moral: A girl faces many issues in her life. Everyone imposed their decision on her because of their weak gender. And she cannot share her problems, because she knows no-one would listens to her or accept her problems. She faces harassment, bad comments, faces mental torture. Neither her family nor teachers listen to her issues. With whom should she discuss the problem and find the solution? Does anyone have an idea of how much she struggles and fights throughout her life?

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Maria Khushk is a freelance writer based in Hyderabad Sindh. She is author of a book titled ‘‘The Cage of Innocence’. She also contributes articles and stories to Sindh Courier.

Also read: Foot into Mouth – A Short Story

The post Shattered Dreams – A Short Story first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Girls’ education in Pakistan has been a long-standing issue with many challenges faced by young girls seeking education. Despite the progress made over the years there are still many obstacles to overcome including poverty, cultural barriers, lack of infrastructure and security concerns.

One of the primary challenges facing girls’ education in Pakistan is the poverty. Many families cannot afford to send their children particularly girls to school. This is particularly true in rural areas where poverty rates are higher and education is often seen as a luxury. Furthermore, girls’ education is often not a priority in families that struggle to make ends meet.

Cultural barriers also play a significant role in limiting girls’ education in Pakistan. In some communities girls are not allowed to leave the home especially as they reach puberty. There are also cultural expectations that girls will marry young and start a family rather than pursuing education or career. This makes it difficult for girls to complete their education even if they are enrolled in school.

Another significant challenge is the lack infrastructure and resources for education. Many schools in Pakistan lack basic facilities like proper sanitation, clean water, electricity, toilets etc. This creates an unhealthy and unsafe learning environment particularly for girls who may be more vulnerable to harassment and violence.

Finally, security concerns are a significant challenge for girls’ education in Pakistan. In recent years there have been numerous attacks on schools particularly those that educate girls. This has created a climate of fear and uncertainty making it challenging for families to send their daughters to schools.

Despite these challenges there have been some efforts to improve girls’ education and the government has made efforts to increase enrollment of girls and improve the quality of education. The non -profit organizations have also worked to provide resources and support for education including scholarship, school-supplies and teacher training programs.

It is important to continue supporting these efforts and advocate for equal access to education for all children regardless of gender.

Raheela Abro

Karachi Sindh

The post Obstacles in girls’ education in Pakistan first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Kainat Rao

Now-a-days getting education has become the most significant part of every individual’s life. While time spent in school and college is the happiest experience for most of the students including both girls and boys, but comparatively girl’s education experience is mostly with many hindrances. Girls face a lot of problems while studying at school or college. Every student face problems according to their situation which varies among girl students. However, there are 10 common problems that are faced by girl students during school and college. If you are one of those girl students who face problems on their way to college, get a jump on how to face these issues that may occur in your path. Peer Pressure

Health Issues

Most of the young girls have to face a lot of health issues as some of the students stay away from home. Such students when eats food from the cafeteria and outside meals probably fall sick very quickly. Falling sick means missing important lectures and lessons which can result in poor attendance and loss of lessons. Such students suffer from mental health conditions because of the heightened stress, poor self-care, and lack of sleep in order to cover all the missing lectures.

The solution for such girl student’s health issues is that each student should eat healthy food and get as much sleep as they can after college or school time. Students should also make a habit of washing their hands so that the chances of falling ill can be reduced.

Mode of Transportation

Girl students also have to face transportation issues while going to school and college. As many of the girls fear harassment during travelling by public transport. Public transports are always crowded by men and women have to struggle a lot for finding their safe spot in the transport and while standing among the crowd.

Early Marriage Issues

Some parents force their daughters in early marriages and with new overwhelming relationships studying can be harder than expectations. Girl students can easily get distracted from their goal of studies as they have to fulfill many other responsibilities.

The solution to this problem is talking to your parents about it and take relationship advice in order to better cope up with the relationship and education life.

Girls’ Security & Safety

Many parents get conscious while sending their young girls to schools and colleges. With the growing crime rates, it is very important to ensure a safe and secure zone of education for all female students. Girl students face problems of harassment sometime within the institutes, people outside the institutes. They have to be very careful while coming from their homes to schools and colleges. Moreover, girls living away from home have to suffer from the harassment of hostel authorities.

The possible solution to ensure the safety and security of girls is looking for an institute with a well-known reputation where you can easily control these unpleasant activities. Moreover, parents should try to give pick and drops to their young girls so that they don’t have to worry about their safety.

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Kainat Shoukat Ali Rajput is based in Nawabshah Sindh

The post Problems faced by the girls in education first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Violence against women and girls—including rape, murder, acid attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage—is endemic throughout Pakistan. Human rights defenders estimate that roughly 1000 women are killed in so-called honor killings every year. Pakistan’s Parliament did not pass a bill that sought to criminalize domestic violence; women rights activists criticized the government’s decision to refer the bill to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) for review. The CII criticized the bill saying that it contained “un-Islamic injunctions” and would destroy the institution of the family.

Child marriage remains a serious problem in Pakistan, with 18 percent of girls marrying before the age of 18, and 4 percent marrying before 15. Women from religious minority communities remain particularly vulnerable to forced marriage. The government has done little to stop such marriages. Many perpetrators believe that violence toward women and girls is normal. Some 35 percent of women experience violence at the hands of their current or former partners in their lifetime.

Women and girls together account for 71 percent of all human trafficking victims detected globally, with girls representing nearly three out of every four trafficked children. It is one of the most widespread violations of human rights and has long-term devastating effects on the lives of women, their communities and wider society. We can change the harmful beliefs at the core of this problem. What was learned can be unlearned. It is time for us all, women, men, girls, boys and key public actors to end violence against women and girls.

Bisma Narejo

Karachi Sindh

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Our youth are financial illiterate  

The global financial literacy survey shows that only 26 percent of adults are financially literate here. This is an alarming situation for a country with more than 63 percent of its population below 30 years age. Majority of population is youth which is going to be the next generation of Pakistan and are going to lead Pakistan in future. If Pakistan wants to be out of poverty and economic crisis then in schools of every province of Pakistan financial literacy should be added as a subject in the course and students should be financial literate so that they can take right financial choices. Which will benefit our country a lot. When it comes to financial literacy five major components that students need to be taught are: earning, sending, saving borrowing and protecting. The school going children aged 13-17 and youth aged 18-29 years should be targeted only because they can process all this easily and implement it in their lives. Lastly every Pakistani should contribute to this initiative. Together, we can make a more financially literate and inclusive Pakistan. For a better future for one and all.

Haani Mustafa

Karachi Sindh

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Call for pro-child policies

Pakistan has over 80 million children suffering to fulfill their needs. This makes it crucial for interventions and policies to champion the rights of children efficiently. It is said that only 20.88% children live in urban areas and have access to fundamental needs. Furthermore 24% of Pakistan population lives below the poverty line; child labor is unfortunately quite common in our country and countless children are forced to work to support their families. Some of them work in hazardous condition without any safety measures. The children are supposed to focus on their education they should not be working strenuous jobs to make ends meet. Our government is responsible for ensuring that children have access to better life. This can only be done when more employment opportunities are created so that adults can earn decently to support their children.

Yasir Abbas

Karachi Sindh

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What Are Polar Ice Caps?

There is a lot of talk lately about the melting polar ice and its effects. But what is polar ice? And how does it affect our planet? A polar ice cap is a region of land at the North or South Pole of a planet that is covered with ice. Earth is not the only planet with polar ice caps; Mars also has them, though they are mostly frozen carbon dioxide.

Why are ice caps found at the poles? This has to do with the angle of sunlight reaching our round Earth. At the equator, sunlight hits the Earth at a 90° angle. This creates an environment of little variation in both temperature and hours of sunlight during the day.

In contrast, sunlight hits the Polar Regions at a more indirect angle. The same amount of sunlight reaches this part of Earth, but it gets spread out over a larger area, so the area receives less solar energy. You can see this with a flashlight. If you hold a flashlight vertically over a flat surface, you create a round, bright circle. If you tip the flashlight so that it is not exactly vertical, the circle of light elongates and decreases the intensity of the light. This happens because the same amount of light is spread over a greater area.

This limited solar energy makes for cold temperatures and very little precipitation (either rain or snow) all year round, which helps maintain the polar ice caps. Polar ice caps and glaciers hold more than three-quarters of the Earth’s freshwater and provide feeding and resting platforms for polar bears, seals, and marine birds.

Ashfaque Sangi

Karachi Sindh

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How to control inflation?

Inflation ordinarily means the abnormal price hike of goods in economic terms. Inflation or rising galloping price is the result of increase in the supply or money than the supply of goods but there are countless factors that cause price hike in any county. In our country we see how fast our population is growing and how much more the people need in terms of food, fruits, clothes, shoes, soap and other articles of daily use. Our farms and factories are not producing food and goods according to the growing needs of the people as a result the prices of commodities shoot up and the government Is forced to print more currency notes to satisfy the people. This is exactly the inflation we are witnessing today.

The second cause of inflation and rising prices is rise in the standard of living of the people. With the greater demand for clothes, shoes, food and other commodities, their prices register a constant rise. Thus a rise in the demand is a sure sign of an increase in prices.

The third cause is the decrease in export and increase in import, as it is happening in our country. When we buy more and more commodities from other countries and sell in local market, they result in price hike being expensive. The costumer has to suffer heavily as government imposes taxes and duties on imported goods. Often the imports are made as the goods produced inside the country are heavily taxed.

The only solution to this giant problem of inflation is greater agriculture and industrial production greater export and higher taxes on imports to discourage it. In addition a control over population growth is utmost necessary.

Parveen Abro

Karachi Sindh 

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Why education is important for women?

Education is essential part of our life. It is more important for women because educating a women means whole family is educated. It’s necessary for a women to be educated because women have to manage a lot of things. Unfortunately, the girls are forced to get married at early age by their parents, and they have to discontinue the education.

Why women have to suffer such discrimination? Why people don’t let them breath freely? I think first of all our main goal must be to educate a women. Now a days it’s very important for a women to get education to get their rights, to get freedom from imposed decisions and be able enough to take decisions what is right and wrong for them. I salute those families and parents who are imparting education to their child to make her independent, to make her strong enough that tomorrow she has ability to stand alone, make her positive thinker to give her bright future. Really they deserve appreciation. I think that every people have to change their negative thinking and should come forward to promote women education and support women through their struggling time. Early marriage is not a solution, educating a women is the solution.

Areeba Altaf Kanasiro

Larkana Sindh

The post Violence against Women and Girls is endemic in Pakistan first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Islamabad

Highlighting the importance of girls’ education and the role it plays in country’s development, experts stressed on the role of academia, civil society and government towards making education compulsory for all and remove the bottlenecks in the implementation of Article 25A of the Constitution of Pakistan. Special emphasis was laid on eliminating discrimination against girls towards provision of their basic right.

These thoughts were expressed by experts during National Conference on Girls Right to Education, organized by Awaz CDS Pakistan here.

Chairperson National Commission on the Rights of Children (NCRC) Afshan Tahseen, emphasized on the need of developing national and provincial education policies that will benefit the whole country. She highlighted how government can monitor the enforcement and administration of current legislation and assess and solve the bottlenecks concerning equity and quality in imparting educational for all. Lack of Implementation of Article25A is central to all challenges being faced by children and youth in our country, she highlighted.

Ali Kamal Chief SDGs Planning Commission of Pakistan, talked about current status of SDG-4 in the country and informed the factors hindering the implementation of Article 25 A. He said that, girls constitute the majority of Out of School Children (OOSC) population. He further said that SDG-4 is enabler to achieve all other 16-SDGs.

Speakers at the conference appreciated Awaz CDS for providing such platforms to develop and monitor national and provincial education policies that will benefit all students, providing a valuable forum to share information and strategies to improve educational equity, advocating for girls education and related issues, and monitoring the work of government on education policies and programs.

Convener at Parliamentary Research Group and Chief Executive, Vision 2047, Zafarullah Khan said that, there is a need to identify the reasons affecting education in the country. He said that Pakistan is a developing country and is far away from achieving the national and international educational targets. There are many stumbling factors in this regard like lack of educational funds; poor school facilities; poor management; absence of schools; unavailability of teachers; patriarchy and lack of awareness about the importance of education.

Chief Executive Awaz CDS Pakistan, Mohammad Zia ur Rehman said that “more than one decade has passed when Article25A was passed by the Parliament of Pakistan whereas its implementation so weak that nothing has been witnessed beyond commitment. We demand Government to establish an effective tracking and reporting system to capture the gender specific expenditures of education system for better policy making”.

He further said that to ensure education for every out-of-school girl in Pakistan by 2030, the provision of stipend / monetary incentive and nutritional support is necessary. He demanded to assign an identical e-identity number to every girl specific with an identification of the target population and its location along with appropriate legislation to end child marriages.

Malala Education Champion Marium Amjad Khan said that 3.3% of girls in Pakistan are married off under the age of 15 while 18.3% of girls married off are under the age of 18, so early marriage is a big barrier in girls’ secondary education besides number of other social and economic reasons. We should start with changing the mindset of people.

There were panel discussions and various sessions in the conference in which speakers shared their knowledge and suggestions.

During the session on “Policy to Action progress on Education”, speakers shared their thoughts and insights regarding Girls Right to Quality Secondary Education. Executive Director Bedari (Punjab), Anbreen Ajaib, Executive Director Mechanism for Rational Change (Balochistan), Sumera Mehboob, Executive Director- Pakistan Youth Change Advocates (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Areebah Shahid, National Coordinator Pakistan coalition for Education, Zehra Kaneez and Programs Director-AzCorp Entertainment (Sindh), Madiha Rehman shared situation from their respective provinces and provided the audience with the whole scenario of education system in Pakistan.

This session was followed by sessions on “Development agenda and role of donor support”. Munazza Gillani Country Director Sightsavers International focused on inclusive and accessible education. Sadie Hussain from ACTED shared solutions to ensure No Girl Leave Behind. Mahwish Afridi from Hashoo Foundation shared Tech Education Schools in the newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Zeeshan Noel from UNWOMEN focused on addressing patriarchal challenges to address girls’ education in Pakistan. A large number of representatives from government, academia, civil society, policy makers and educationists attended the event. (PR)

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The post Girls constitute the majority of Out of School Children population first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Lahore

Expressing grave concern over the 2.2 million out of school children, with girls being the majority, experts have stressed on the implementation of Free and Compulsory Education Act and girls right to secondary education in Punjab.

These thoughts were expressed at the consultation session on the Implementation of Free & Compulsory Primary Education Act and Girls’ Right to Secondary Education organized by Awaz CDS and National Commission for Human Rights. The major focus of the session was to emphasize on the initiatives needed to be taken to ensure primary education of children and reducing girls drop out from secondary schools as it would contribute a lot towards ensuring educated women population, a guarantee to economic and social stability.

Chief Executive Awaz CDS, Mohammad Zia ur Rehman, Member/Commissioner (Punjab) National Commission for Human Rights, Nadeem Ashraf, Director School Education Department, Mr. Ghulam Farid, Member Punjab Assembly, Ms. Uswa Aftab, and Ms. Ayesha Iqbal, Ms. Noorish Sabah, Director Punjab Literacy Department, Ms. Baela Raza Jamil from ITA and other academics as well as  members from NGOs attended the event.

In his opening remarks, Zia ur Rahman, Chief Executive Awaz CDS highlighted the significance of girls quality secondary education and explained the grey areas in the way of girls education in Punjab.

He urged the Punjab government to immediately notify the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014 which was approved earlier. He stressed for increase in development budgets for school education as developments budgets are only being distributed to PEF and PEIMA rather development budgets needs to be utilized for the development of public schools especially for girls, where missing facilities and accessibility is still a major challenge. He further warned that due to fuel price hike many girls are leaving schools and more drop outs are expected after summer vacations.

Nadeem Ashraf, Member/ Commissioner (Punjab) National commission for Human Rights welcomed the audience and discussed the bottlenecks and challenges in implementing Free and Compulsory education act and ensuring girls basic right of getting education and shift nation towards stability.

He said that according to PSLM 2019-20, In Punjab for every 100 girls enrolled at the primary level, 38 are out-of-school and for every 100 girls enrolled at the secondary level, 162 are out-of-school.

Ms. Ayesha Iqbal, Member Punjab Assembly highlighted the recent development for enforcement of Punjab Free & Compulsory Education Amendment Act 2020 for the immediate enactment of law. She stressed that Governor Punjab Baligh-ur-Rehman should take steps to get this education Act notified without any delay as education is priority for all parties.

Member Punjab Assembly, Ms. Uswa Aftab on behalf of School Education Standing Committee stressed on the importance of notification of Punjab Free & Compulsory Education Act 2014 to ensure every child is getting basic education and country is progressing towards achieving SDGs on education.

She said that her department is constantly working on this sector and said they would make extra efforts to sensitize more and more people on girl’s education in order to minimize girls’ secondary school dropout ratio.

The floor was then opened for Answer questions followed by insightful discussion on making primary education compulsory in the province and ensuring girls are getting secondary education and thus contributing towards stability and national goals of educated Pakistan. (PR)

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The post Fuel price hike increases the girls’ dropout from schools first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Karachi

A recent study carried out in Sindh suggests that the Socio-Cultural, Political and Religious norms of the society have a negative impact on women’s position and their identity in the society.

“The structure of the society is patriarchal. A narrow-minded approach, rigid norms and traditional practices coupled with patriarchal hegemony have significantly contributed to depriving girls from acquiring education,” says the study carried out by Sindh Education Foundation on the initiative of provincial Ombudsman. The report was launched on Thursday at a ceremony held at Chief Minister’s House Karachi.

To investigate the issues relating to girls’ education particularly in Sindh, the Provincial Ombudsman had awarded consultancy to Sindh Education Foundation (SEF), to carry out a research study on the subject. The study is funded by International Ombudsman Institute under Regional Subsidy Program. The key objectives of the study are to identify the dynamics of socio-cultural, economic, political and religious and supply side factors, hampering the gains of girls’ education in Sindh.

The scope of the research was mainly desk research consisting of secondary data from local and global literature. However, primary data from in-depth semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in Sindh has also been gathered and analyzed. The report discusses key findings on the status of girls’ education in the country in general and in Sindh in particular.

Findings from Desk Research

The overall number of Out of School Children (OOSC) was reduced in 2018-2019. However, the majority of the school-going children are still not able to have access to schools and the majority of these children are girls. Dropout of school children in general and the girls in particular, is a chronic issue; particularly in the rural areas. When children transit from primary to secondary schools, the rate of drop out gets higher.

One of the key factors for low levels of girls in education is dearth of Middle, Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools in Sindh. Generally, parents are reluctant to send their daughters to long distance schools. Missing school facilities including boundary walls, shelters, functioning washrooms, drinking water, minor repairs and other necessary items also lead to dropout of girls from schools.

Female teachers in girl schools are essential as cultural norms are against the mixed gendered/single sex schools (boy schools). This becomes more challenging when girls reach puberty or pre-pubescent age which further limits their mobility. Poverty restricts poor and low-income families to invest in their children’s education. Therefore, it keeps many girls away from school. Child labor becomes a crucial source of income for poor families in Sindh and parents send their girls to work as paid or unpaid workers or help families in agriculture activities to improve their family income.

Findings from Primary Data

Ombudsman Aijaz Ali Shah said that the first and foremost issue in girls education is limited accessibility to schools. He added that girls in government schools drop out drastically after completing primary education as the middle or high schools were not available in the vicinity.

According to the Ombudsman drop out starts from grade 4 and onwards, when girls grow up, especially, when there is no female teacher in the school. Gradual shift has been observed in narrow minded attitudes, old traditions, and culture towards girls’ education in Sindh, yet gender gap persists in the education system.

Gender imbalance is a reflection of the social fabric of a society. The difference in roles and responsibilities between boys and girls starts from their families, schools and cultural background. Low-income families do not afford the cost of education. The poor quality of education in Sindh widens the gap between girls’ enrollment and retention rate in primary and secondary schools.

In High/ Secondary schools (where girls of adolescent age studying), lack of functional, private and secure washrooms and the boundary wall are major reasons which hinder girls from attending schools. It was also found that implementation of Policies and Plans is a tough and demanding task.

Recommendations

The study report recommends reviewing existing policies from a gender perspective and strengthening monitoring mechanisms. It requires collaborative efforts of all key stakeholders, including the education department, Sindh Education Foundation, Provincial Ombudsman and local administrative offices.

The report suggests organizing community awareness/ campaigns, workshops should be held at local level on a regular basis. Activation of School Management Committee (SMCs) and Female leaders may lead the SMCs. Cross cutting themes on gender should be part of every professional development of Teachers, the report suggests. Gender Units should be established both at the education department and SEF.

Priority should be given to up-gradation and consolidation of primary schools into elementary/secondary schools and provision of adequate facilities and competent female teachers.

For increasing girls’ enrollment at Post Primary level, the study recommended that Government Boys High Schools (GBHS) and Government Boys Higher Secondary Schools may be renamed as Government High Schools (GHS) and Government Higher Secondary Schools (GHHS) respectively.

Addressing the ceremony, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said the socio-economic, cultural and religious factors obstruct the girls’ education and deprive them of opportunities to learn and develop into agents of change for our society.

“It is only through education that girls are nourished and groomed as responsible citizens, capable of playing a positive and creative role in social development”.

CM said that he assigned top priority to girls’ education and planned to allocate greater resources for the purpose. “Obstructions to girls education – traditional administrative and financial would be removed and a conducive environment for promoting girls education would be ensured. “It is in our national interest that this important and sensitive issue is addressed on an urgent basis with consistency and resolve to muster all the essential components for promoting girl’s education,” he said.

Shah said that it was an unfortunate that despite efforts of the government the girl’s education has been lagging behind. “The multiple causes for this situation have been aptly highlighted in the study paper,” he said and added girls must have their right to education as enshrined in the constitution and laws; otherwise, we would remain trapped in ignorance and poverty.

CM said that he has gone through the report and read its recommendations. He advised the education department to make efforts to put the recommendation into action.

Murad Ali Shah directed the local administrations at all levels- Divisional, District, Sub-Division and Taluka to devote time and attention to ensure proper functioning of girls schools in their areas. He directed the chief secretary to incorporate the component of smooth functioning of girls’ schools in the performance evaluation of local officers.

Supporting the idea of School Management committee (SMCs) should be headed by Mothers, the chief minister directed the Education Department to bring necessary changes in the rules to make it mandatory for the girls’ schools.

CM said that BISP has been one of the great success stories of the Peoples Party government acknowledged by international agencies. He added that in order to incentivize girl’s education conditional the Cash Transfers (CCT) system under BISP to be linked with the girl students’ enrollment in schools. “The Education Department should initiate necessary action in this regard,” he said and added a similar system to reward better performing schools on gender parity basis be introduced to create an atmosphere of healthy competition. (PR)

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