Changing mindsets: ‘All government primary schools in Sindh to go co-ed’

Of the 5m children in the province, 2m are out of school: Intermediate board chief.

KARACHI:

In order to address the high “dropout or push-out rates” in Sindh, the government now plans to make all primary schools co-ed.

Of the five million children in the province, two million are out of school, according to the chairman of the Intermediate board, Anwar Ahmedzai. He believes the high dropout rates result automatically from the fact that there are only 67,000 primary schools and only 3,000 secondary schools.

He was speaking at a panel discussion conducted by the Indus Resource Centre (IRC) on Saturday. IRC recently concluded a baseline study on ‘Reproductive Health: Status and Practices’ in three tehsils of Khairpur district. The study highlights low literacy rates - especially among girls and women - leading to unsafe reproductive practices in the area which is representative of most rural areas in province.

Under the Socio Economic Development Association, the government now plans to remove all gender-based primary schools and make them open to both boys and girls. “There will be no more girls primary schools or boys primary schools. There will only be government primary schools that will cater to all,” he said.

If parents are worried about their daughters being taught by male teachers, all primary schools will have female teachers, who are currently being trained, he added. Meeting health and other needs of the rural communities cannot be tackled until their mindsets don’t change and this can only be brought about through education, he stressed.

Ahmedzai believes policies such as allocating seven per cent of the GDP to education seems like a distant dream. Presently, he said, 2.1 per cent is allotted to education of which only 1.7 per cent has been released so far.

Besides enlightening the young, Ahmedzai pointed out that the women of the household are key players in changing mindsets towards education and better health practices. “The older woman also needs to be roped into the change as she is the one who teaches the young girls to mould themselves to accept and become subservient to the male-dominated community.”

Also part of the discussion, Health and Nutrition Development Society chief coordinator Dr Tanveer Ahmed took matters a step further to discuss school curriculum. “There are many aspects of health that need to be brought into the course of study,” he said.

“Perhaps the name given to the course on reproduction can be changed. Such as referring to it as life-skill-based education rather than sex education, or some of the content can be debated but there should be no argument on its importance and the need for it to be taught at school.”

Dr Ahmed also spoke on the need for child spacing, recommending that religious parties, who don’t oppose this ideology, should be taken on board to promote the practice. Social activist Amar Sindhu urged policy makers to used data and conclusions from such studies while deciding future courses of action. Columnist Zubeida Mustafa asked broadcast journalists to play a larger and more positive role in promoting education and better health practices in rural areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2011.