In Swat Pakistan a delectable reason to be in primary school ?

by Begum Zebunisah Hamidullah Posted 2012/06/01 18:46:27

Related Topics: Oil, School, Space, Free, Expectations, parents, Teacher, Student, Food, Teachers, Schools

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		SWAT PAKISTAN; According to Harvard researchers Robert Barro & Jhong-wa Lee, Pakistan has been increasing enrollment of students in schools at a faster rate since 1990 than India. In 1990, there were 66.2% of Pakistanis vs 51.6% of Indians who had no scho
		This is a tested strategy for improving school attandance in impoverished areas/communities. In India too the mid day meal for school children has seen school attendance going up.
		Excellent,initiative – let’s hope that it’s sustainable and diverts poverty-stricken families from sending their kids to madrassas. A proper education is the only way to prosperit and we need to make an investment in our youth
		In America where obesity is the rising in children parents need to wake up and not push their chdlfren into the rolls of childhood diabetic trauma

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	SWAT PAKISTAN; According to Harvard researchers Robert Barro & Jhong-wa Lee, Pakistan has been increasing enrollment of students in schools at a faster rate since 1990 than India. In 1990, there were 66.2% of Pakistanis vs 51.6% of Indians who had no scho	0 votes	0%
	This is a tested strategy for improving school attandance in impoverished areas/communities. In India too the mid day meal for school children has seen school attendance going up.	0 votes	0%
	Excellent,initiative – let’s hope that it’s sustainable and diverts poverty-stricken families from sending their kids to madrassas. A proper education is the only way to prosperit and we need to make an investment in our youth	1 vote	100%
	In America where obesity is the rising in children parents need to wake up and not push their chdlfren into the rolls of childhood diabetic trauma	0 votes	0%

PAKISTAN:SWAT:

Apart from providing education, primary schools have an added
incentive for children in upper Swat. They get free food rations for
attending classes under the United Nations World Food Safety Net Feeding
Programme. This has subsequently upped the enrolment rate in the
schools by 60 per cent, it has been learnt.

Students have been provided energy biscuits and cooking oil under the
World Food Program-sponsored programme since 2009. Teachers said that
the project is achieving more than their expectations.

“Apart from increasing enrolment in primary schools, the programme
aims to eliminate child labour and improve attendance,” Programme
Manager Amjad Ali told The Express Tribune. He said that around 130,000 children and teachers in 610 primary schools of the upper Swat have benefited from the programme.

Balancing an oil canister in his hands, Muhammad Ali, a second grader
who was returning home on Wednesday, said joyously: “We get parathas
(oiled flatbread) with tea at school daily in the morning, which we did
not get before.”

Another schoolboy, also holding an oil canister he got from school,
seemed even more jubilant than his classmates. “We are getting double
advantage: study and food. We love our school,” they said in unison.

“This is an effective way of attracting children towards schools,”
said Kalam Education Department Centre In-charge Shah Nazar. “We don’t
need to launch new campaigns to attract students; we are already short
of space to accommodate them,” he said. Nazar added the programme has
also motivated parents who were initially sceptical about sending their
children to school and were more inclined towards sending them to work
instead.

Abdul Ghafar Khan, a teacher in Kalam, concurred. He said that with
the incentive of food, even street children have been admitted to
schools.