Parents urged to send children to school

Education is every child’s right and it is essential that parents ensure their child gets a basic education, said Additional Deputy Commissioner Omar Iftikhar Shirazi.

He was speaking at an event organised in connection with World Literacy Day at District Council Hall, Jhelum by the Literacy Department the other day.

Shirazi said that parents should not deprive their children of their basic right to education. He added that the purpose of celebrating this day is to remove the darkness of illiteracy from the world and educate the coming generations with the light of knowledge.

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He said that knowledge is light, and illiteracy is darkness. Today, we must pledge to educate our children so that illiteracy can be eradicated from the country.

District Literacy Officer Maimona Anjum said that the aim of World Literacy Day is to create awareness among the people and society to eradicate illiteracy. She said that at present, over 8,000 children from nursery to grade 5th are studying in 326 literacy and non-formal primary education schools in Jhelum district.

The Punjab Literacy Department is educating illiterate children in prisons, and shelter homes, brick kilns and other remote places. The dept also set four schools up in Shanti Nagar Tehsil Jhelum, she said, adding that around 100 out-of-school children have been enrolled at these schools.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2021.