It was an unbelievable sight. Three or four little girls in a five-storey, 100-square-yard school in the slum area of Shershah brushing their teeth over a wash basin because they were taught by their teachers to be clean and tidy. The school also has the facility of showers for its students who work in morning hours and then attend the Child Development Centre (CDC) run by the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) under the able guidance of Professor Anita Ghulam Ali, one of the top educationists of Pakistan.
“There are 300 children in our school and we have three shifts for boys and girls. Most of them are Pushto-speaking kids hailing from the lowest strata of our society. We not only provide them with education up to class eight but also inculcate in them awareness about hygiene,” Wajida Musharraf, Principal, Child Development Centre told The News. Musharraf earned a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, and is extremely happy with these children.
“Students also have their own lockers where they can put their soap and towel and other necessities and a geyser so that they may not be reluctant to take a shower in winter,” she said.
The school has filtered water, a computer lab donated by the British Council and a library stuffed with children’s books. The students undergo regular medical checkups by qualified doctors and their history is kept methodically in their profiles.
Initially, the local population, mainly comprising industrial workers looked upon the CDC with suspicion and was not ready to send their daughters to the school nor would they allow their womenfolk to talk to the organisers of the school. But slowly and gradually they started trusting them and their suspicions evaporated in thin air.
“Initially, it was difficult to convince many parents how important it was for their children to acquire education. But essentially as a result of parent-teacher meetings, we succeeded in attracting many children,” said Abdul Ghafoor, a field associate at the private-public partnership unit of the CDC.
Most of the children work in Shershah’s scrap market, auto workshops, restaurants, power looms and garment factories. Some of them are also garbage pickers. But from their appearance one can’t even imagine that they have been working in the morning. Girls lend a helping hand to their mothers in household chores and learn embroidery.
“Just as Karachi is mini-Pakistan, Shershah is mini-Karachi. About 50 per cent of our students are Pushtoons, while the rest are Punjabis, Baloch, Sindhis, Urdu-speaking and Bengalis,” said Ghafoor.
Students are friendly and confident and they have a dream. “I work at a scrap shop owned by my father till 1:00 p.m. At 2:00 p.m. I come to school and study till 4:30 p.m.,” said 14-year-old Mohammad Waqar, a student of class six at the CDC. “I want to become an engineer.”
Fifteen-year-old Safia, a Pushtoon student of class six, wants to become a doctor so that she can serve ailing humanity. She has seven sisters and one brother and her father, Karimullah, is a driver with the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC).
Fourteen-year-old Rabia is also a student of class six and her father Mohammad Riaz works at a furniture mart. She wants to become a doctor. Yet another student, 14-year-old Siraj, a student of class six, also wants to become a doctor because “it is the wish of my blind father.”
Interestingly, the students also produce a wall magazine that includes poems, paintings, essays and short stories. They have also painted murals on the walls of the top floor on the theme of peace.
After passing out of class eight many students join Shafi Technical School established by an industrialist or join some other school. But there are dropouts too; this however is due to the migration of family which goes back to its hometown in the NWFP, Punjab, etc.
“The dropout ratio is small and is essentially due to the migration of families to their ancestral homes in the NWFP, Punjab, etc,” said Ghafoor. The model school has been a success and has invited attraction of many experts because it helps eliminate child labour through a gradual process of learning and persuasion.
“Over the years, the subject of child labour has attracted attention from many individuals and organisations around the world. People from a wide range of organisations and institutions have been exploring ways to tackle this issue through various means with education considered to be the prime antithesis to it,” said Dr Fouzia Naeem Khan, Head of Social Sciences & Economics at the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST). She has taken a keen interest in the CDC too.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), there are 3.3 million child labourers in Pakistan, out of which 2.4 million (73 per cent) are boys and 0.9 million (27 per cent) girls.The SEF initiated a ‘Child Labour Education Programme’ with a vision to “provide a conducive learning environment for working children and restoring the dignity of labour,” Dr Khan explained.
A survey conducted by SZABIST showed that almost all the responses confirmed that education had a multiplying effect and benefited not only the children but all those who were connected to them i.e. their families, their siblings and the community at large.
“Almost all children stated that they help their families in reading and writing letters, reading electricity and gas bills and helping their siblings with their education,” she said. “The responses also implied that education rendered positive effects on the performance of children at their workplaces. This was mainly attributed to the fact that the children became literate and could manage to read off the instructions from equipments and could make necessary calculations.”
Source: The News
Date:4/8/2008
