LAKKI MARWAT, Jan 1: The National Commission for Human Development has enrolled 26 girls in a government primary school in Wanda Fateha Khan Jatt village for the first time in the history of the village as part of a plan to boost female education.
The village primary school's headmaster Khushdil Khan raised the issue of out-of-the-school girl children in review meetings of the commission held in Oct and Nov 2010”, said an official of the NCHD on Saturday.
The village Wanda Fateh Khan Jatt situated 26 kilometres in the south of Lakki city has 120 households with zero female literacy rate. Main occupation of the villagers is cattle rearing as they have limited resources for agriculture because the land is arid and rain dependant.
Low income resources and cultural barriers are the main reasons for keeping the girl chidden away from schools.
The NCHD official said that after identification of the issue by school headmaster the authorities of elementary and secondary education department and officials of NCHD assigned the task to the headmaster concerned, ex-mentor Fazlur Rehman and markez coordinator Naseerul Islam to approach community members in this regard.
“The ESED and NCHD officials were also directed to arrange a broad-based community meeting in the village to find an amicable solution to the issue of non-enrollment of girl children in schools”, he maintained.
The NCHD official said that in a recently held broad-based community meeting attended among others by village prayer leader, chairman of parent-teachers council and notables the officials discussed the issue with community members and chalked out a comprehensive plan to ensure girls' enrolment in the school.“The meeting directed the headmaster to prepare a list of out-of-the-school children and also requested the elders to launch a door-to-door campaign to educate parents on the importance of girls education”, the official added.
He said the successful meeting with local community paved the way for holding enrollment ceremony in the village wherein 26 girl children were enrolled in the village primary school.
NCHD district general manager Javed Afzal Marwat, district programme manager education Illyas Khattak, MCs Naseerul Islam and Nisar Ahmad, ESED assistant district officer Mohammad Ayyub and community members participated in the ceremony.