PESHAWAR, Sept 18: Many of the blind girls have been unable to get even primary education in the wake of non-existence of special educational institution for them, interviews with blind girls revealed.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that those wanting to get education have to leave home and face a number of problems.

Neelam, five, is blind by birth. She belongs to a poor family from Swat. As there was no institute for blind girls in her home district, she was admitted to an institute for the blind girls education in Peshawar.

"I am missing home and I just want to go home," homesick Neelam told Dawn.

There was a school for blind boys but no such outlet for the girls and my parents did not allow me to go to a boys school so they brought me here, she said. "I am not happy here," she said.

The institute for the blind girls, housed in a rented building at Hayatabad Town, is run by the social welfare department. The rooms have desks and chairs which need repair. At the moment there are 15 blind girls aged between five and 14.

The institution did not have even a braille machine, a fundamental teaching tool for the blind and the students were given old notes.

A UK-based social worker voluntarily helped the institution and provided two braille machines to the institutions.

Ms Aneela, a teacher at the institute said that the syllabus of Sindh was taught in the province's institutions for the blind which was old and needed to be changed now.

The biggest problem is that there is not a single braille press in the city which is why there are no books in braille and blind students face many problems.

The girls are provided education only up to primary level and after completing five years they have to either leave their studies incomplete or go to a middle school in Islamabad for further studies.

Noreen, a blind teacher at the institute said that blind girls like herself who wanted to continue their studies had to study with the normal girls at the public or private schools.

"I myself studied with the normal girls at the Nishtarabad High School but I had to face many problems," she said.

Noreen, who has passed matriculation and then appeared as a private student in the intermediate examination, said that the examination system did not provide much relief to the blind candidates.

Blind candidates were supposed to attempt the same paper and were given only 45 minutes additional along with the three hours to solve a question paper.

The blind candidates who appeared with the normal candidates in examination were provided with a one class junior writer.

The blind candidate tells the writer what to write and how to write spellings which is time-consuming exercise.

Another blind teacher, Ms Shahida, said that being a blind, a candidate was provided a junior writer.

A blind candidate, she said, was completely at the mercy of the writer during the examination.

She said that she failed in the home economics paper in matriculation examination because her writer was reluctant to solve the paper.

The three blind teachers at the institution said that they had to make an extra effort to pass Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) examination as a private candidate.

Many parents of the blind girls are already afraid to send their daughters to the far off educational institutes as the biggest problem is to pick and drop them. Many districts have institutes for the blind boys but the parents could not send their blind daughters to the mixed environment.

Many blind girls remain deprived of the enlightenment due to the lack of facilities for the special persons.

The in charge of the institute, Ms Nudrat, said that she with her staff was conducting a survey in Peshawar to locate blind girls and convince their parents to send them to the institution for the blind. So far, 12 girls have been located.

Blind girls from different parts of the city will be admitted to the institution after convincing their parents.