KARACHI: Proper education, training stressed: National Children’s Day
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Jan 9: Perfection in education and training, meant for children, was stressed by a number of speakers at a function held here on Thursday to celebrate the first National Children’s Day. The government last month had declared Jan 9, birth anniversary of Hakim Mohammad Said, founder of Hamdard Foundation, as the National Children’s Day to be celebrated every year.
The function was organized jointly by the National Commission for Child Welfare and Development (NCCWD) and the Hamdard Foundation at the Madinat-ul-Hikmat.
The Prime Minister’s adviser on Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education, Nilofer Bakhtiar, chairperson of the NCCWD, Parveen Qadir Agha, chief of the Hamdard Foundation, Sadia Rashid and chief of Pakistan Academy of Letters, Iftikhar Arif were among those spoke on the occasion.
Messages from President Musharraf and the former minister for Women Development, Atiya Inayatullah, were also read out on the occasion.
The speakers said that quality education and high standard training were essential for the future of children who would eventually have to shoulder the responsibility to lead the nation to progress and prosperity. They said that good education and perfect training was the children’s right and the government’s responsibility.
They observed that in addition to the UN-sponsored Universal Children’s Day, celebrated all over the world on Nov 20, the government had taken an appreciable decision to mark the National Children’s Day to remember the late Hakim who had devoted plenty of his precious time, energy and professional work to children.
They recounted Hakim Said’s valuable contributions and efforts for the upbringing of children and bring about an improvement in their mental and physical growth by organizing and patronizing various institutions, programmes and schools besides publishing books, magazines, etc. for them.
They particularly mentioned Hamdard Naunehal assemblies in this regard and observed that a large number of children keenly participated in the regular feature being organized all over the country. They pointed out that quiz shows, tableaus and songs, debates and speeches, besides competitions, which were salient features of the programmes held under the auspices of the Hamdard Foundation contributed greatly towards creating confidence in children and youth. Such a healthy practice, they added, was vital for the young generation in facing challenges in their lives with courage and determination.
The speakers were of the view that owing to various reasons, including lack of awareness, children in the country could not be given their due rights. They hoped that being a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Pakistan would do its utmost in streamlining the existing laws in conformity with the Convention and enact more to ensure restoration and protection of children’s rights.
They acknowledged a national policy for children was in the offing and would be announced soon.
The speakers welcomed the formation of National Commission for Child Welfare and Development which had been reviewing various relevant laws and preparing its recommendations with a view to make these laws more child-friendly.
The speakers also hailed the ongoing process of policy formation aimed at containing child labour, child abuse, child trafficking and other such menaces.
They attributed the country’s backwardness over the past half-century to the negligence of the new generations in performing its duties righteously which, they said, resulted in a series of crises.
They said that only proper training and education would enable the children to attain a respectable in the comity of nations.
The speakers observed that in developed countries, students hardly found time to waste. Their entire day, they added, was devoted to class rooms, libraries, laboratories and healthy extra-curricular activities. Contrary to this, they regretted, educational institutions and training centres in Pakistan remained closed for much of the year and students found very limited opportunities of healthy academic or gainful activities.
Some of the speakers held the elders partially responsible for such a situation saying that they failed to provide their children a perfect educational and training system.
Three young children, Ali Akber, Ramsha Kanwal and Syed Fawad Hassan were among those presented their views on the occasion.
Seven students from among those nominated as brilliant ones in the country were given Hakim Mohammad Said Award, comprising a gold medal, a certificate and Rs10,000. They were Niaz Mohammad (NWFP); Raja Shahbaz (Azad Jammu and Kashmir); Mohammad Afzal (Northern Areas); Fauzia Akram (Balochistan); Azeem Haider (Punjab); Taniya Jalil (Islamabad) and Saba Mushtaq (Sindh).
Tableaus, one on a national song and the other depicting an army parade and commandos killing the enemy, were presented by a group of visually impaired students and another group of special children of Shaheed-i-Millat Special Education Centre respectively. Students of Hamdard Public School also presented a tableau on national unity.
