‘Govt booklet is just the first step’

PTU general secretary says step is positive but more is needed

LAHORE: Lauding the booklet issued by the Punjab government on children’s safety, parents, teachers and society members said such a document should be considered the first step in the direction and more measures were needed to protect children from abuse.

Talking to The Express Tribune on Thursday, various stakeholders urged the government to ensure that children, parents and other members of the society were taught on how to save children from abuse. They suggested that child safety should be made part of the curriculum and necessary legislation should be introduced. Another suggestion was that the teachers should be given training to communicate this information to children in an effective manner. They also demanded that the initiative be expanded to private schools which were responsible for educating a large population.

On Wednesday, the Punjab government launched a 24-point booklet for teachers and parents to create awareness on child safety. Punjab School Education Minister Rana Mashhood introduced the booklet – Pakeeza Zindagi – which would be distributed among 400,000 parents and teachers.

“Teachers and parents are important stakeholders. Seminars and other awareness steps will be taken after they go through the booklet. It will then be included in the curriculum after consultation and approval from all stakeholders,” the minister said.

Punjab Teachers’ Union (PTU) General Secretary Rana Liaquat said “We want this to be included in the curriculum. By curriculum, we mean that chapters should be included in subjects like Islamiat and social studies etc. By doing this, we want to ensure that children receive this education without getting negative connotations related to the topic.”

He said that parents, ulemas and society should be on the same page about this issue and the matter should not be exploited to introduce sex education in schools. He said that the step taken by the government was a positive one but more was needed to be done, especially making it part of the curriculum.

Child Rights Activist Iftikhar Mubarik said that life skill based education was needed to protect children, which was needed to be part of the education system. He said that similar initiatives were taken earlier through NGOs to sensitise teachers, but those did not make any dent as there was no accountability. The initiative should be systemised and should be checked and improved, he added.

Mubarik said, “A few years ago, teachers at public schools were given training and reading material by an NGO. However, when it was checked later, it was found that it had no impact as teachers had put them away. Therefore, an accountability mechanism such as examination is needed to keep a check on the effectiveness of such initiatives.”

He said that the government should have included organisations that deal specifically with child protection through a consultative meeting. He said that larger stakeholders could have given a better input on the matter and could have given their view on the effectiveness of the material compiled by the government. He also emphasised on the importance of legislation in this regard, which was lacked in the province. A government body should be given a mandate to deal with child abuse, he added. Rana Imran, father of two, said that the major issue was to communicate with children on the act of protecting themselves in such situations. He demanded that teachers should have been trained to communicate such information to young minds. He suggested that children could be sensitised through plays and short dramas on how to inform their elders, parents or teachers, when someone approached them inappropriately.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2018.