CHITRAL: A five-day training programme on ‘art of parenting’ for school and college teachers and health department officials started in Chitral.

The deputy commissioner of Lower Chitral, Mohammad Hashim Azim, was chief guest of the inaugural ceremony. The programme is being jointly implemented by higher education department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Aga Khan Foundation, Quaid-i-Azam University and Allama Iqbal Open University.

The training has two components named as Aghosh and Parvarish, which are meant for two different age groups of up to eight years and nine to 18 years, respectively. The programme is aimed at empowering parents for holistic child development.

In his address on the occasion, the deputy commissioner termed the training very useful and indispensable need for the future of the nation. “In order to move forward as a nation, we have to work on character building on war footing,” he added.

He said that within a month of taking charge in Chitral, he realised the need and was busy in formulating a programme in which a curriculum was being prepared for the character building of children to be taught in primary classes so that high moral values and human qualities were imprinted in the mind of children.

The deputy commissioner said that through the curriculum topics, children would be taught about character building, good traditions and civilisation, life skills, the importance of the environment and natural disasters.

Earlier, Dr Qayyum Ali, the adviser to Aga Khan Foundation, explained the objectives of the training, Dr Raiha Aftab of National Institute of Psychology, Quaid-i-Azam University, explained the Parvarish programme and Mohammad Athar of Allama Iqbal Open University explained the training manual of Aghosh programme. Mohammad Kashif Irshad of higher education department explained the importance and need of the training programme.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2025