‘Ghar aya Ustad’: Enrolment drive gets going in K-P

SHABQADAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government’s enrolment campaign, ‘Ghar aya Ustad’, kicked off in Charsadda along with other parts of the province.

As part of the drive, schoolteachers organised walks in different areas of the district. The campaign aims to bring back to school students who dropped out due to various reasons.

Directives have been issued to all DEOs of the province to put together awareness programmes and convince parents and guardians to send their children to school. DEO Muhammad Siraj Khan said he visited the rallies in three tehsils, participating in the public awareness sessions. Khan added the government aims to enrol 1.1 million children during the course of ‘Ghar aya Ustad’, where approximately 70% will be enrolled in government schools and 30% in private schools and religious seminaries. The drive will continue till April 30.

According to statistics available with NGO Alif Ailaan, approximately 4.69 million out of K-P’s 7.15 million children are out of school. Amongst them, 25% dropped out at some stage while 75% never attended school in the first place.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2015.