Around 50 people have been marching from Larkana and Sukkur for the last 26 days to demand better education in Sindh. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Around 50 people have been marching their way from Larkana and Sukkur to Karachi for the past 26 days to build pressure on the government to improve the quality of education in the province.
Their main demand is to impose an ‘education emergency’ in Sindh for at least the next 10 years. The long march, organised by the nationalist Awami Jamhoori Party (AJP), started on March 16 from Larkana and Sukkur, respectively. The two processions marched through various towns and merged into a large demonstration in Moro, Naushero Feroze.
The participants, led by AJP president Karam Hussain Wassan, secretary-general Vishno Mal, Abrar Kazi, Hussain Bux Narejo, Nazeer Qureshi, Zahida Dahri, Saeeda Gopang and Hareef Chandio, reached Mirpur Badhoro of Thatta district on Thursday. The march will culminate in front of the Sindh Assembly building in Karachi on April 19, when the participants will finally convey their message to the authorities.
This long march marks the first time any political party has taken such an initiative to demand for better education in the province. “It has been 26 days since we started the march but, believe me, I have not felt any exhaustion at any moment,” said Hareef Chandio, a senior party leader. “We want to do something for good quality education because the future of Sindh is nothing without it.”
AJP’s vice-president Qadir Brohi, who has also made the 400-kilometre journey, clarified that the march has no other agenda. “The long march has a one-point agenda - improving the deteriorating standard of education,” he said.
According to Brohi, the feudal mindset is enjoying power politics and they are the stumbling block in bringing education reforms in the province. “We will expedite our struggle until our goals are achieved,” he said. Along with imposing an ‘education emergency’, the party wants to settle the disputes between the representatives of teachers unions.
“Among other things our prime demand is to declare at least one boys’ and one girls’ high school as a model school in each taluka headquarters,” he said, adding that they will follow the same pattern as Daanish school in the Punjab. “We want 262 such schools in 131 talukas of our province.”
The participants of the march - which includes men, women and children - start their journey from 9am to 6pm and travel up to 30 kilometres every day. They are holding placards inscribed with various slogans, such as ‘We want quality education’, ‘Restore 11,000 non-functional schools’ and ‘Bring education reforms by inducting teachers on merit’.
Another participant of the march, Hakeem Zangejo, pointed out that nearly 200 vocational institutes have been lying vacant for several years. “We want to start the Sindh Education Management Service for proper career planning for our young generation,” he said.
Although they started their journey on their own, the participants are happy with the response they have received in the towns they have visited. Several members of political and civil society organisations have greeted them with rose petals and arranged dinner receptions.
“Wherever we have gone, we have distributed pamphlets urging people to persuade their children to work hard and give up cheating in their exams,” said the secretary-general. “We have also appealed to the people to form small committees to monitor schools in their areas.”
Mal felt that people with a feudal mindset have ruined educational institutions in Sindh through their dirty politics and they want to use this long march as an attempt to restore them to their past glory.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2014.
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