Enrolment drive: Ghar aya Ustad reaches Swat Valley

Teachers, govt officials to participate in door-to-door visits

MINGORA: The Ghar aya Ustad enrolment and education awareness campaign has reached Swat Valley. Teachers, civil society members and local elders have joined hands with the education department to encourage those who dropped out to come back to school and increase enrolment figures in the valley.

DEO Zulfiqarul Mulk said bringing these children back is the fundamental target of the campaign. “Teachers will visit localities in the form of a jirga and convince parents to educate their children,” he said. The DEO said schoolteachers and local elders will be accompanied by education department officials during the visits.



Women officers will also participate in the campaign and help control the increasing dropout rates for girls from primary and middle schools.

“For the sake of our future generations, we will try our best to bring girls back to school,” said department official Shamim Akhtar.

“Nobody should understate the significance of education. It is a fundamental responsibility of the state and everyone should extend help to the government in meaningful projects like these,” said Zahoor Ahmad to The Express Tribune. Ahmad is a social activist.

The campaign is set to last till April 30, aiming to bring around 1.1 million children back to school.

During the drives, activists will voluntarily go from door-to-door, engaging with parents and guardians about the subject and persuading them that education is the only means of upward mobility for their future generations and the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2015.