PESHAWAR, Feb 23: Minister of State and Chairman, National Commission for Human Development (NCHD), Dr Nasim Ashraf, on Wednesday stressed the active involvement of volunteers to ensure timely prevention of dropouts among schoolchildren.

This he said while visiting Feeder School at Ghar Kallay, Mitakhel, here on Wednesday. He said that unless the trend of dropping out was prevented "we cannot achieve remarkable success in increasing literacy rate".

Emphasizing improvement in this important human development indicator, the minister said that education was key to development, according to a press release. "We are focusing more and more on human development to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It is need of the hour to chalk out effective policies for the provision of education and health to the common man at his doorstep," the NCHD chairman added.

He said that the National Oral Rehyderation Salt (ORS) Campaign would help in ensuring the better health of children at their homes. He said that immunization of children was also of significance to overcome various fatal childhood ailments.

Earlier, in a briefing to the minister, the General Manager, NCHD Karak, Nasim Ejaz Khattak, said so far 282 Adult Literacy Centres had been completed where 5239 learners had passed out.

He said that 52 Feeder Schools were functional while 86 teachers had been provided to government schools to overcome the shortage of teachers. "We have so far registered a total of 3,833 volunteers, who are actively supporting the literacy, health and education programmes," Nasim remarked.

With the interventions of NCHD, the enrolment has gone up to 90 per cent, he said, adding that more than 27,000 children had been enrolled and more would be roped in during a new campaign in April.

Meanwhile, the minister also held a meeting with the District Nazim, Mohammad Sharif Khattak, and shared views with him on the NCHD activities. The nazim praised the efforts of NCHD in Karak and said that they would join hands in eradicating illiteracy from the area. He said that district monitoring committees were working in close coordination with the NCHD for the uplift of the area.