SHANGLA: District education officer Mohammad Amin has claimed that Shangla has the highest number of out-of-school girls.

He was addressing a ceremony to launch enrolment campaign at government primary school, Butyal, here the other day.

A walk was also held in Bisham Bazaar led by the DEO with the participants carrying banners and placards inscribed with messages about the importance of education.

The district education officer said the United Nations had made it mandatory that every child under the age of five should be in enrolled in school till 2015, but Pakistan lagged behind.

“Unfortunately, the Bisham tehsil is at the lowest ebb in district’s education ranking, where the female literacy rate is only 12 per cent and male 38 per cent. We have to bring out-of-school children, both girls and boys, to schools because getting education is their fundamental right,” he said.

He appealed to the social activists to come forward and play their due role in enrolling out-of-school children.

Other officials stressed efforts to overcome shortage of classrooms, teachers and furniture so that children could be attracted to the government schools. They urged parents to enroll their children during the ongoing mid-year school enrolment campaign.

Guldad Khan, a social activist and former village council nazim, said government schools were now equipped with better facilities as qualified teachers had been appointed through NTS, which had improved education standards. He demanded that the locals identify out-of-school children in their respective areas so they could be put in school.

The district education officer enrolled two girls at the Butyal school on the occasion and also gave them books.

Meanwhile, the education department issued a notification, appointing Fazal Subhani Afghani as assistant sub-divisional education officer, Puran tehsil.

Mr Afghani, a poet from Aloch, had been a teacher at government school in Pir Khana.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2019