“I am studying management planning in education at the National University of Modern Languages (Numl). I belong to the Ghizer district of Gilgit-Baltistan and am the only child of my parents. My father passed away when I was quite small.

I was left only with my mother who brought me up in the Gilgit city. I was admitted to a local school where I acquired education up to the college level. In my early age, I realised that the standard of education at the school and college level was not good enough.

After completing the college education, I decided to go for higher education and return to my hometown to support others. I moved to Islamabad along with my mother and this was a quite challenging decision for us because there was no source of income to pay my university fees and meet other expenses.

In Islamabad, I tried hard to get a job and at last was hired as a teacher in a school at Sector G-10.

Soon afterward, I got admission to Numl three years ago. I am looking forward to completing my studies so that I can go back to Gilgit-Baltistan and try to help the ministry of education raise not only the standard of education but also spread education to the remote areas where children still have no access to schools.”

Published in Dawn December 3rd, 2016