Promoting literacy: Informal school set up for child workers

GHALLANAI: Security forces on duty at the Pak-Afghan border have set up an informal education centre for child labourers in Bahai Dag, Baizai subdivision of Mohmand Agency. Locals said there are many children in the area who are deprived of basic education, shared Lieutenant Colonel Taimoor of Mohmand Rifles on Monday. To educate these children, the school was set up two months back and has so far enrolled 70 children who would otherwise spend their day fetching water from a tube-well constructed by security forces, he added. “Two personnel from the forces teach these children.”  Other than education, the personnel are also working on various development projects, including those pertaining to health and infrastructure, he added. The school is an opportunity for children to study in Bazai, one of the three subdivisions where there are no high schools for boys or girls.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2015.