New buses for mobile literacy project

‘School on Wheels’ to get five more vehicles for Tarnol, Nilore

ISLAMABAD:

The mobile literacy project for the towns of Tarnol and Nilore located on the outskirts of Islamabad will get five new buses under the ‘School on Wheels’ project, according to its project manager Muhamamd Nadim, who is the deputy director for research and development at the Federal Directorate of Education in Islamabad.

Initially, the mobile school project consisted of two buses which were providing primary-level education to children, especially between the ages of 3-5 in the two localities, Nadim said.

He said five more buses were being prepared whose work was in the final stages. “Hopefully, these buses would start functioning just after Eidul Azha,” he continued.

With an overall literacy rate of almost 63 per cent, the data shows that it is higher in urban areas (76 per cent) as compared to rural areas (51 per cent), prompting the need to concentrate more on the latter which lacks basic educational infrastructure.

The official added that Pakistan has a high percentage of youth among its population - almost 64 per cent of Pakistanis are below the of 30.

Nadim revealed that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was in the pipeline with the British Council. Under it, 20 more buses would be provided to the Federal Education Ministry to decrease the number of out-of-school children, he added.

In addition to mobile libraries, meals are also being provided to the students enrolled in mobile classrooms, fostering a culture of reading and nourishment.

The bright-coloured buses are decorated with balloons and windows painted with alphabets and cartoons. The inside of the mobile classrooms is bright and clean, its interior filled with images of alphabets, numbers, days of the week and pictures of fruit and animals.

There are colourful chairs inside the bus as teachers use an interactive whiteboard for teaching.

Muhammad Nadim said that some private organizations were also providing support to the government to make the project successful.

These NGOs provide free teachers besides helping in discipline-related issues, he said, adding, the buses travel all over the area, and specifically in places where are no schools nearby.

He said that children were taking special interest in these schools, particularly Afghan refugees living in the suburbs.

Nadim said each bus would be equipped with computers, desks, whiteboards, Smart Boards, LCDs, ACs and Washroom.

Jamal Ahmed, a daily-wage earner and father of four, says he always wanted his children to get education. “But I could not afford to send them to school. This initiative has provided me an opportunity to get my kids educated and that too on my doorstep,” Ahmed said.

He said his younger son now waits for the bus and gets ready early in the morning, adding this initiative would help many poor people like him to fulfill their dream of educating their children.

Pakistan spends only 2 per cent of its GDP on education which is quite low compared to other countries.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2023.