TAXILA: A school for street and out-of-school children, especially working in brick kilns, workshops and hotels and begging, has been opened in Attock.

In the Subh-i-Nau (early morning) School, the enrolled children would be provided with free uniforms, schoolbags and stationery with the support of Jica, department of education and philanthropists.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Additional Director Education Rawalpindi Division Iffat Qadir said children were the future of any nation and the challenge of out-of-school children and alarming school dropout ratio could be addressed by providing them equal educational opportunities.

She emphasised the need to discourage child labour in brick kilns, workshops, hotels and domestic workers as well as begging. She said after completion of a 32-month-long study programme in Attock, there had been a significant reduction in the number of out-of-school children. She stressed the need for collective efforts and raising public awareness to eliminate child labour.

Chief Executive Officer District Education Authority Sajida Mukhtar said in the first phase 75 out-of-school children mostly working in workshops, hotels and shops had been identified in the city during a survey conducted by the education department involving teachers as well as assistant education officers (AEOs).

She said the pilot project had been initiated in Municipal Committee High School in Attock city and the out-of-school children were enrolled there. She said three teachers were engaged to educate these children from 7:30am to 10am daily. She said these teachers were imparted training in Lahore.

District Officer (Elementary Education) Shahnaz Qadir said the scope of the initiative would be expanded to all the six tehsils of Attock, especially Pindigheb and Jand, so that children of these areas who failed to continue their studies due to poverty and lack of resources could be enrolled.

A special academic calendar spreading over 32 months has been framed for the children enrolled under Subh-i-Nau initiative, said Aabid Khan, deputy district officer education.

He said four packages were framed to impart education to the students. Mr Khan added that under package one, students would be taught from nursery to class-1; package two would cover students from class 2 to 3. Under package 3, students would be taught from class 4 to 5 and under package 4, students would be taught from class 5 to 6. The course has been designed in such a way that they would learn from nursery to 6th class in the span of 32 months enabling them to read and write English, Urdu and understand basic mathematics.

“It was my childhood dream that I could attend school like other children. I always looked helpless when other children went to school in the morning while I used to clean tables in a hotel every morning,” said Ahmed, an enrolled student who had to work in the hotel after the sudden death of his father.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2024