Around 7,000 out-of-school children registered

FDE to collect data in Sohan, Tarlai and Khanna Dak

ISLAMABAD: With the government striving to tackle the issue of out-of-school children, a drive to enrol such children in schools in the federal capital has seen around 7,000 children sign up in the past fortnight.

Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) Director General Ali Ahmad Kharal has said that over the past 17 days, a campaign to enrol out-of-school children in the city has seen some 6,947 children registered.

Official figures suggest that there are some 30,000 out-of-school children in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

These children will be categorised as per their ages and will then be admitted to different classes.

Kharal added that they were working on a procedure which will streamline the admissions process for these registered, out-of-school children so that they can be adjusted in classes.

He suggested that some older children could also be enrolled in technical diploma along with a seat in a regular classroom.

The FDE had on January 8, started a survey to collect data about all the out-of-school children in the federal capital. As many as 2,500 volunteers had been asked to go door-to-door to collect data about the number of children who were not in school, the area they lived in what was their gender and ages.

The survey had been launched by Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, who had then personally signed off on the admission of three seminary students and three children from the slums into schools.

The FDE had divided the 50 union councils of the city into six sections including sector Tarnol, sector Nilore, Sector Sihala, Sector Bara Kahu, Sector urban-I, and Sector urban II.

As per the available documents, till January 25, data from more than 60 per cent of the union councils have been collected.

In Sector Tarnol, 1,970 out-of-school children have been registered, 1,950 children in Sector Nilore, 860 in Sector Sihala, 1,015 in Sector Bara Kahu, 572 in Sector Urban-I, and 580 children in Sector Urban-II.

The FDE had decided that initially, these children will be identified and registered and all data about them will be collected during from the door-to-door campaign in all UCs on the set performa. This data includes information about the child’s family, the family income, dependents and other relevant details.

Nilore Area Education Officer Sohail Ali Khan said that they are still going door-to-door to collect data. He added that they hoped to complete the data collection process over the next few days.

He added that they had sought help from public school teachers to collect this data. Since these officials have to be in school from Mondays to Fridays, the teachers go door-to-door on Saturday and Sunday, their gazette off-days, to collect the data.

He added that they will soon turn their attention to houses in Sohan, Tarlai and Khanna Dak to collect data.

The government has already completed a survey of 423 government schools in the city where these children are expected to be accommodated.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2019.