Workshop: Focus on education to combat violence

Speakers stress on creating better opportunities for residents of Gilgit.

GILGIT: For the problems being faced by Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and the country at large, education is the only way out. Speakers stated this at a workshop on “Role of media in spreading education in G-B” organised by Association for Academic Quality (AFAQ) at the Gilgit Press Club on Sunday.

The speakers zeroed in on the lack of opportunities for the people of G-B in education, especially resulting from sectarian strife in the recent past. They identified radio as the most effective tool of communication to spread education in the region, where people don’t have easy access to newspapers.

“At present, the US has more than 2,471 radio stations dedicated to spreading education in the country,” a participant said. He demanded from the local government to allocate resources to universities to set up their own radio stations.

“Had the people of G-B been better educated and employed, the region would not have witnessed such acts of violence,” opined another participant, Abdur Rehman. His assessment was endorsed by other participants, who maintained that in certain parts of G-B, such as Hunza, where the standard of education and literacy rate is much higher, the rate of violence in those areas was also far less as compared to others.

The participants also voiced concern over the deteriorating standard of education in government schools, multiple educational systems in the country and under-reported issues of the education sector.

AFAQ Gilgit In-charge Basharat Hussain said he had surveyed all the schools in various valleys of the region and pointed out that a lot more needs to be done to achieve the desired goals of the education sector.

He said his organisation has trained more than 600 teachers, 200 of them principals, to deliver quality educations in schools.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2012.