PESHAWAR: Different events and ceremonies were held in various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday to mark International Day of Education.

The events were arranged at government schools and colleges by Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation (E&SEF) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The events were attended by officials of E&SEF, education department, district administration and local government representatives.

The main function was held in Government Degree College Daggar, Buner. E&SEF Managing Director Zareeful Maani was chief guest on the occasion. Buner Additional Deputy Commissioner Wajid Ali Khan, the district education officer, former mayor of Daggar tehsil and principal of the college also attended the function.

The E&SEF managing director told this scribe that government should think ‘out of the box’ to enrol millions of out-of-school children in the province. He said that currently more than four million children were out of school. He added that government needed billions of rupees to construct thousands of schools for them.

Mr Maani said that girls community schools, an initiative of E&SEF, was the best example of informal education. He said that E&SEF established around 4,000 such schools across the province to impart education to around 200,000 students.

According to different surveys, he said, major reason of increase in the number of out-of-school children was long distance between schools and residences of students.

He said that a community school could be established at a cost of Rs40,000 within two weeks while a regular school needed around Rs30 million and several years to complete.

At the function, the students of girls community schools also participated in writing and speech competitions to highlight the importance of education. Zulkifil, a special child and student of the girl’s community school Dengaz Alize Nawagai, got first position in the writing competitions.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2023