Education vacuum: ‘35% children do not attend school in Haripur’

HARIPUR:

At least 35% children between the age of five and nine years in Haripur do not go to school, Alif Ailaan Division Coordinator Syed Zahid Kazmi said during a seminar on Wednesday.

According to data collected by Alif Ailaan from across the district, at least 50,000 children of the 143,000 children in the district belonging to this age group do not attend school. However, when approached for comments, the Assistant District Officer Abdul Samad Khan challenged these figures.

“Enrolment has improved over the years in Haripur district and is far better than in other districts,” he said. “Poverty and the absence of infrastructural facilities could be one of the reasons why a large number of children do not attend school.”

At the seminar, teachers, parents, journalists and education activists compiled a charter of demands on improving the standard of education in the district which would be presented to the government.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2015.