Balochistan’s Girls Miss out on Education

By: Kalsum Khan

(Killa Saifullah): Amna, Qudsia and Areeba look no different to other Pakistani schoolgirls. The trio of nine-year-olds with neatly braided hair and pressed uniforms giggle at a private joke as they walk through the gates of their school in the town of Sibi in Balochistan Province.
However, in the context of Balochistan, Pakistan's least developed province, they are unusual: they are among the very few girls who go to school.
Balochistan's female literacy rates are among the lowest in the world, with most girls not enrolled in a school. The province's literacy level - 37 percent - lags behind that of Pakistan's three other provinces and the national average of 53 percent.
Analyst Syed Fazl-e-Haider, a columnist with the Dawn English weekly newspaper based in the capital, Islamabad, estimated last month that the rural literacy rate in the province stood at no more than 23 percent.
The literacy rate for Balochistan's women was estimated at 20 percent, with only 10 percent of rural women receiving schooling.The Society for Community Support for Primary Education in Balochistan, an NGO, estimated that the female literacy rate in rural Balochistan increased from only 1.5 percent in 1992 to 8.9 percent in 1998.
"Some districts in Balochistan have among the lowest enrolment and literacy rates in the world, with one district recording only two percent enrolment at the primary [school] level," Naveed Hassan Naqvi, a World Bank education economist who also heads the Balochistan education support project, said.
The project has helped provide a US $22 million loan to set up community schools targeting girls.
But observers said there were numerous challenges to bringing the province level with other parts of Pakistan. Social attitudes were a problem but the ongoing conflict between the Pakistani military and local tribes was also detrimental.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said fighting that flared in the Dera Bugti and Kohlu districts southeast of the province's capital, Quetta, late last year had killed at least 300 and forced thousands to flee. Children's education had been disrupted for at least six months. The fighting had eased but many families had yet to return.
"We moved to Sibi eight years ago from our village in the Dera Bugti district because there were no schools there and we wanted our children to be educated," Akbar Ahmed, 34, whose three children attend school in the town, said.
Elsewhere, law and order issues provided more problems. HRCP said there had been increased reports of highway robbery, vehicle theft and kidnapping.
Pakistan's government blames feudal leaders for the province’s backwardness.
"Feudal chiefs who hold back development for their own purposes will not be tolerated," Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said recently.
However, many people in Balochistan believe the issue is more complex. They blame the lack of development and extreme poverty on the authorities and accuse them of failing to grant the province control over its considerable natural resources. Balochistan contains 90 percent of the country's natural gas.

UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION

By: Naveed Ahmed

The statistics of Primary Education in Pakistan shows a gross enrollment rate of 70%, with 50% of these children dropping out before reaching the fifth class. Out of these 35% survivors, only one third meet the minimum quality standard that is expected of a child passing primary education. This comes to only 11% of the total target population.
“To ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling and that girls and boys will have equal access to all levels of education.”
A child getting a chance to express her potential at an NCHD Feeder School
The NCHD's UPE program targets the Out-of-school children, by carrying out data collection of each and every household through door to door survey, with the help of village volunteers and teachers of schools, thus ensuring wider community participation through broad based community meetings. Once the list of out of school children are prepared form the data collected, names of out-of-school children are handed over to the village volunteers for visiting the homes of out-of-school children, for motivating the parents for in time enrollment, and ensuring their enrollment in nearest schools. Where there are no schools within commuting distance, NCHD opened formal community primary based schools, and thus ensured access to schooling. In formal schools, where the number of students increased because of intensive enrollment campaign, NCHD provided additional teachers to cater for the learning needs of new students. A system of dropout prevention was devised, which hinged upon private-public partnership; the teacher and the community volunteers followed up a persuasion strategy, following up on students absent without intimation.
The UPE program is implemented through the public sector institutions. The strategy for UPE remains capacity building of the District Education Department through demonstration and on-job training. For providing support to the Education Department, a field team is made responsible for social mobilization for enrollment and dropout prevention, and is attached with the Education Department for the capacity building of the Education Department. These field tiers also carry intensive monitoring of the activities, and also build the capacity of the Education Department for effective monitoring. The over riding concern remains provision of quality education, which is affected through rigorous teachers training and intensive monitoring of learning achievements of the students.

Home School VS. Public School

by: Jaffar
"Each day, more than 1,200 young men and women give up on their high school education, and, in many cases, on themselves" - so says the Brandon. Each day, 1,200 young men and women are becoming a burden to society. In a report done in March of 2006 for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it was found that one third of all Public High School students failed to graduate with less then 2 years to go. Nearly one half of those were blacks, Hispanics, and Pakistanis. Many students gave personal reasons for leaving school. A third (32 percent) said they had to get a job and make money; 26 percent said they became a parent; and 22 percent said they had to care for a family member. At the end of this article I will show you where to get the rest of this disturbing report.
I am not a fan of the public school system. Not with numbers like... the nationwide grand mean in reading for home schoolers was at the 79th percentile, and the 73rd percentile for language and math. This ranking means home school students performed better than approximately 77% of the sample population on whom the test was normed. Nearly 80% of home schooled children achieve individual scores above the national average and 54.7% of the 16,000 home schoolers achieved individual scores in the top quarter of the population, more than double the number of conventional school students who score in the top quarter.
Facts are facts, but commons sense dictates that the public schools just do not work. They keep throughing money at the problem, working on self esteem and incentives while passing out condoms. They took out morals and replaced it with acceptance. They took out accountability and replaced it with food stamps. That's what the government gives in return for your tax rupees. Not to mention the NEA. They are a force in Islamabad that would rival the IRS. Just mention the word 'school vouchers' and red flags go up while the race cards come down.
Point being that this great country does allow us a means to avoid the peer pressure filled, barb wire lined, police patrolling institutions we call public education. The number of home schools is rising every year, and with that are SAT test scores. The fact that nearly all home schools are Christian based is reason enough to go this route. But even if you took that out of the equation you would be left with flexible schedules, like going year round and taking a week off anytime you like. One on one training and tutoring, a nurturing environment as apposed to one that requires self defense as part of the curriculum.
It is easy to realize that the home school beats public school, and even private schools for that matter. One must consider the time it would take to pursue such a task though, along with the cost. I have found places that get the process rolling for a Rs.2500 Registration fee, Rs.1000 processing fee, and then Rs.85,000 – Rs.150,000 per child, depending on the number of children. These organizations will provide proper paperwork, curriculums, planners, schedules and support to keep it in line with all the various state laws that apply.

Education in Zhob

by:Karim

A group of girls read outside a Save the Children supported girls' primary school in Zhob,Balochistan,Pakistan.Education is vital to lasting positive change in children's lives. Yet for millions of children and youth in developing countries, education is beyond reach. Save the Children reaches the world's most marginalized children those who urgently need education to survive and thrive in more than 30 countries around the world.Communities and nations, including some of the world's poorest, are committed to meeting the education needs of their most vulnerable children. They need global partnerships and support to meet the formidable challenges they face. In partnership with governments, nongovernmental organizations, and local communities, Save the Children brings quality education to the most vulnerable children in some 30 countries around the globe from sub-Saharan Africa to the Middle East, to Eurasia, South and Central Asia, and Latin America.
Save the Children's Education programs reach marginalized children girls, ethnic minorities, and children affected by HIV/AIDS, wars, and other catastrophes from early childhood through young adulthood. We attend to communities in greatest need, design programs that minimize obstacles to participation, and make the content of education relevant to the realities of children’s lives. Quality of learning at our schools is very high; typically children from Save the Children village schools score better on government exams than children enrolled in government schools.