Marred by poverty, Chashma Goth residents unable to provide for children’s education

Govt provides free books but people cannot afford to buy copies, bags, shoes, uniforms and stationery

KARACHI: Chashma Goth is situated around seven kilometres from Quaidabad. While Quaidabad is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, Chashma Goth has no transport facility, hospital and or good quality education for the 5,000 people living in the area.

Muhammad Ali Khaskheli and Moosa Khaskheli communities inhabit Chashma Goth.

Playing around the school building adorning ajrak-printed uniforms and eating biryani from the school canteen, little did students at Government Girls Secondary School Muhammad Ali Khaskheli and Government Boys Primary School Wagoodar No 2 know that they might have to stop coming to school soon.



The government provides free books to more than 250 children who are studying at the schools. However, the families are so poor that they can't even afford the expenses for copies, bags, shoes, uniforms and stationery. Attendance ratio has been dropping with each passing day – students stop attending school as parents cannot afford to buy them the required items, said Muhammad Javed, who is the councillor of UC-30 in Chashma Goth.

Attendance ratio has been dropping with each passing day – students stop attending school as parents cannot afford to buy them the required items, said Muhammad Javed, who is the councillor of UC-30 in Chashma Goth. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN

Most of the residents of Chashma Goth are fishermen, with no fixed wages. Their earnings depend on the seasons, which is why they are very poor and marginalised, explained Khair Muhammad, the head of School Management Committee (SMC) and a resident of Chashma Goth.

Khair also said the principal of the school, who is the signing authority of the SMC budget, died nine months ago. Since then, he said, they have not received a single rupee from the education and literacy department. "We have written to them and have also submitted the death certificate of the principal,” he added. “We hope the funds will be released soon."



According to Khair, the dropout ratio is on the rise due to lack of funds and poverty. "To sustain enrolment in areas like ours, efforts are needed on part of the government along with the NGOs working here."

Along with the two schools, a total of nine public schools in the vicinity have been adopted by the Indus Resource Centre (IRC). Teachers from IRC have been teaching at the schools in Chashma Goth since 2009. "We have been working here since 2009 and enrolment has increased from 350 to 1,725 in all the nine schools," said Aabida Mehmood, the IRC management principal of the schools in UC-30.

Eating biryani from the school canteen, little did students at Government Girls Secondary School Muhammad Ali Khaskheli and Government Boys Primary School Wagoodar No 2 know that they might have to stop coming to school soon. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN

According to Aabida, they have been providing the students with uniforms, bags and shoes twice annually during the last eight years. However, she said, parents have to buy stationery and other things, too.



Shabeer Ahmed, a resident who works for the betterment of education in the area, said that he, along with Muhammad Javed, visited the district officers and the Zakat and Ushr Committee chairperson for Malir to request for some funds. However, he said, none of them listened to the problems that the students have been facing and refused to help.

“I don’t understand on what they are going to spend the funds if not on the education of the needy students,” he said. He added that the chairman of the Zakat and Ushr Committee, Noman Murad, even refused to meet him.

Uplifting female education

Not everything is on the downslope in Chashma Goth. Aabida was of the view that the UC has talent. In the last few years that IRC has been working particularly for female education, more than 15 girls have completed their matriculation, she said.



Gul Bano, who joined one of the schools in the special classes of IRC’s adult literacy programme, is the first girl from her community to have completed her Matric and joined the school as a teacher. "It was my dream to teach and I will continue with my studies," she said, talking about how she is also motivating the girls in her community to go to school.