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| Parents Day |
The way the students of this makeshift school performed was outstanding and unbelievable. They presented different sketches, dramas on terrorisms, made fun and cut jokes, presented poetry, poems, songs and also delivered speeches on various issues. While the students also made fun of the bad behaviour of the teachers by presenting different social reforming stories.
Ghazanfer Ali, the head teacher said, “There is zero literacy rate in these slums and they do not even know how to hold a pencil and pen in their hands while their parents are sending their children for collecting recyclable stuff in order to support their families because poverty is on the peak level in these areas. We are now trying to teach them and give them basic education besides teaching them how to keep themselves clean.”
He added, “There is much talent present in the students of these areas but the problem is that there is no one who could help them bring their talent to the front while supporting them financially and giving them opportunity but their parents cannot teach them. They themselves are very much poor and do not even have two-course-meal a day so how is it possible for their parents to think about their education.” It is reportedly said that all the people living there in the slums are either daily wagers or scavengers and there is no hygiene over there which is very important for maintaining their good health and the people of the area are also deprived of the basic necessities of life.
Sabra Qureshi, the founder of a local NGO who runs the schools for the kids living in slums, said, “We took the initiative of ‘Pehli Kiran schools’, which is for the children of the deprived class back in 1995 with 8 students and now with the grace of God we are imparting education to almost 250 students alone in one school while we have set-up 8 schools consisting of 1200 student from across the slums in the outskirts of Islamabad.”
The majority of students studying in these schools are Afghan refugees while others belong to district Punjab. Every donor, philanthropist and the government authorities give attention to the elite class schools while no one is bothered to help the children of slums who collect recyclable stuff from the garbage. This is really a serious matter and need the attention of the concerned authorities to help them solve their problems as well as educate them because majority of population in Pakistan consists of the children who are poor.
