Indus Resource Centre: Keamari schoolchildren attend their very first fair

In the newly constructed school, stalls were set up and activities had been arranged in different blocks.

KARACHI: School-going children from the coastal towns of Karachi were hesitant and uncertain when they were invited to an education fair arranged for them in their locality. They had never attended an inter-school event — most of them oblivious to fairs and large crowds.

The Indus Resource Centre (IRC) arranged a Taleemi Mela (education fair) for government-school students at the Government Boys Secondary School, Younusabad, in Keamari on Sunday. Most of the children belonged to the fishermen and displaced communities.

In the newly constructed school adopted by the IRC, stalls were set up and activities had been arranged in different blocks. Sadiqa Salahuddin, the IRC founder and executive director, said that it was a day for children. “We want to create demand and pressure for quality education because if these communities do not ask for quality education, they will never get it.”

In one block, a talent show was going on. “There are so many acts that we had to limit each performance to five minutes. They talent show started at 10 am and will continue till 5 pm,” said an organiser.

Every room was packed with boys and girls, some putting on their costumes, others preening themselves for the stage. Some boys were guarding the girls’ changing room with sticks.

It was not just a children’s show as some important issues were also highlighted. A play was performed criticising the delay in salary payments for public school staff. Meanwhile, girls were seen spraying red paint on their hands to symbolise blood for a tableau on social issues.

As the girl’s performed their tableaux, eager boys peeped through - and some practically hung from the windows to catch a glimpse. With almost 800 children in the performance room, the boys were forbidden as “there was not enough space”.

Another block was dedicated to children’s movies. Another room was set up to display children’s art work.

On the main ground, schools exhibited their science projects and models for awareness. There were book stalls as well, with encyclopaedias and dictionaries in Urdu, English and Sindhi up for sale.

This education fair was a good break for children from the strict eye of their teachers. Naseem and Ismail, class-three students from Kaka village, roamed around the science models arm in arm, chewing betel nut. One project amused them in particular because they could not tell whether the toy penguins in the mangrove model were real or not.  Mehr, Faiza, Hina and Sauleha had huddled into one corner and started dancing and singing among themselves.

“It’s for the first time we have come out together,” said Mehr, who was in a chiffon dress and heavy jewellery. The boys, too, weren’t to be left out. They were dressed to the nines, and duly accessorised, sunglasses and bandanas and all.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2011.