By: Naveen Iqbal
Herronk, a village some sixty kilometers away from Turbat city, has a population of more than ten thousand people. Although the villagers are famous for getting education and jobs, but still we observe a great number of children away from schools for various reasons as poverty, lack of awareness about the benefits of education, lack of interest, family force and so forth. Basically, the village has five schools; one government, primary and a middle school for girls, and a government, primary and a high school for boys, including another private, primary school for both the genders. Despite the given schools in the village, we see children working in garages, shops, masons and gardening as farmers with their parents. Most others have turned to United Arab Emirates (UAE) for jobs in very small ages.
As I personally belong to the village, I see children wandering uselessly and not coming to schools. Many others in the schools leave after every class. Some quit after they finish their primary sections, certain others in the middle section and rest after the matriculation. The remaining students either turn to Quetta, the provincial capital, or Turbat for a higher education. One major reason among the other drawbacks, described above, is early marriages. When the students reach at an age of 15 to 18, they mostly get wedded off which results in their drop-outs from the schools. They do not feel education of a need once they are married, other than an opportunity to secure a governmental job. But for this, they adopt the private examination method to get their degrees.
Poverty is one other reason which compels myriad of the youth of the village to quit their education. As we know that poverty has led us back as it has the power to snatch our desired goals from us. Same is the case with Herronk where estimated ratio of poor villagers is ninety out of hundred percent. Mostly after matriculation, they cannot afford to send their children outside the village for a higher education, whereas, the village can only give an education till the matric. Despite the fact that women sew clothes in their sphere times, they still cannot manage to educate more than one or two of their children; the rest begin working to help their parents financially.
Family Force is among the other factors leading to drop-outs of so many kids of Herronk. Because in my village, mostly residents understood the things wrongly. Like, some of them think it is not in the customs and traditions of the Baloch nation to send their girls, in particular, out for any reason – be it for education or anything else – which is not true. We took the traditions in a wrong way like we made our mindsets as such that girls are for merely sewing clothes and boys for earning money. And when they grow up to fifteen to eighteen years of age, they are to get married and then they are supposed to give birth to children. Owing to such marriages, the young couples cannot have proper family planning and, in some cases in Herronk too, either of them committed suicide.
Besides this, people blindly follow what others do. They follow others when they become impressed by what they did. They have no planning in purse by themselves. On the same account, whenever someone, who manages to secure a good job, migrates from the village and never comes back to have interactive sessions with the students and other villagers and guide them about education and its benefits. They leave their home because of getting better facilities in cities and permanently shift themselves there. I do not argue they should not get settled in cities, but they should have timely visits in their village to guide their youth, especially those who are confused about getting an education.
One other major defect which is common not only across Balochistan but entire Pakistan is unskilled teachers. As said to the point: “A teacher is always a good actor.” Because it is always a teacher who compels a student to be attentive in class and gain the taught things. But there is nothing as such in Herronk’s schools which can impress the children to be attentive in classes. Hence, their minds get diverted to another world during the classes, which results in zero gaining by the students of the classes. As someone puts in nicely, “Children see magic because they look for it”, which means they need some internment for gaining the things.
Thus, children are the future of any nation. Any inconvenience in their education shakes the backbone of the nation as a whole. The government has to come up with suitable solutions to maintain the order of education provincially and sort out the educational queries. On the other hand, the educated people of Herronk, who are either studying or transferred to other cities after getting jobs, should pay visits in their village and guide the children to secure education. If we realise what our job is, things can get to a smooth direction no later.
Published in Daily Makran Times
Daily Makran Times 