I SALUTE the officers of the Sindh Education Department who established a primary school 64 years ago in 1957 in a small riverine village located in a ‘jungle’ in Fateh Tando, Lakhi taluka, Shikarpur, when there was no access to the village except a dirt-road.

The bull-cart used to be the only mode of transportation and no one could imagine the kind of means of communication that are integral parts of life today, like telephone, internet and mobile phones.

Today, one can solve any problem, communicate and share information sitting in one corner of the world with someone in another corner. Even the use of paper is getting minimised, digital currency is being introduced, and almost the entire correspondence is through electronic means.

An application along with a list of 350 children residing in a cluster of four villages in in union council (UC) 28 in Shikarpur was submitted to the relevant office on May 12 to open a new school in the area. The application, which was submitted in person to the office of the secretary, is duly stamped and contained the ward number. Additionally, a proposal for shifting of one nearby closed/non-functional school was also submitted, mentioning the contact information of the applicant.

It is disappointing that nobody has so far contacted the applicant despite the fact that the application was subsequently sent to all the relevant officials of the provincial bureaucracy as well as to the minister concerned.

One can easily compare the working of the department, and its priority and interest in promoting education in 1957 with what the situation is like today in 2022.

Ghulam Muhammad Mahar
Shikarpur

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2022