500 rapid learning classes created in Nimroz

ZARANJ (Pajhwok): Five hundred rapid learning local classes have been created in Zaranj, the capital of southwestern Nimroz province, and in the far-flung areas of some districts to provide learning opportunity for children unable to attend schools due to several reasons, an official said on Sunday.

The Ministry of Education in cooperation with its international partners strived to expand access to education for youth and children who deprived from mainstream education in Nimroz.

The religion of Islam made getting education compulsory on men and women but due to decades of war and conflict there was still no school or educational institution in many parts of the country.

Qari Sharifi, deputy head of Nimroz Education Department, said 500 rapid learning local classes had been recently established with the financial support of UNICEF and in coordination with Kowar Organisation in the far-flung areas of the provincial capital Zaranj, , Khashrud, Chakhansur, Kang, Charhburjak and Dilaram districts.

He said 17,500 boys and girls would be able to get education in these classes.

Of these 500 classes, 92 are established in Zaranj City and 408 in the remote areas of some districts.

He said the education department was facing the shortage of teachers, text books and equipment in the districts.

He added the education department would support every programme that strengthened education in the province.

“Half of the schools in every district were disabled due to the shortage of teachers and children are deprived from education.”

He welcomed the establishment of these schools and said there were some handicaps existed in this programme which needed to be adressed by UNICEF and Kowar Organisation.

Kowar Organisation Director Munir Ahmad Sherzad who has responsibility for the implementation of the project, said as a result of the establishment of 500 rapid learning local classes 17,500 students in the centre and district were not getting education.

He said 115 classes are established in Khasrud, 31 in Chakhansur, 25 classes in Chaharburjak, 236 in Dilaram and 89 classes for girls in Zranj City.

He said students are distributed books, health kits, provided teachers, class kits, water containers, bags and others needed items.

Referring to the rapid local lasses and normal classes at school, he said in rapid local classes students studies two classes in one year while normally one class is taught in a year.

For normal classes the age condition is 7 to nine while for rapid local classes the age condition is 10 to 15.

Mohammad Umar, the resident of Sardasht village in Kang district, said his two daughters deprived from education due to long distance to the school, adding that now they are enrolled in one of the rapid local class near his house.

“For years I wished, I could take my children to the school, I am a poor man and could not afford to buy books, notebooks and other items needed for the education of my children. Now I am happy and thankful to Allah that my daughter in the age of seventh and ninth are able to go to school.”

Umar said most schools in Kang district are inactive due to the lack of teachers therefore children fond of learning were deprived of education but now with the help of UNICEF they will have access to education. These rapid learning classes are a golden opportunity for people in the far-flung areas to learn something, he added.

Abdullah, 14, one of the children could not go to school over the past three years in Dilaram district. He said: “I am interested in learning, there was fighting in our district all the time and the school remained closed.”

He is thrilled with the creation of rapid local classes and said he and other children like him who were deprived of education have now have an opportunity to learn.

Fatima, one of the teachers local classes in Chakhansur district, said many children in the Mullah Rasoul Dafki village who could not study due to some issues are attended the newly established rapid local classes with zeal and enthusiasm, but people in the village want more similar classes to be established.

Abdul Sammad, head of the Mullah Rasoul Village Council, said 31 rapid local classes are established in the village on the bases of requirement, these classes are provided all the needed equipment and facilities.

“There were some students in these classes who did not know how to pray and lacked religious knowledge they dared how to write and read in these classes,” he said.

Raza Yaqubi, monitoring and evaluation director of the rapid learning classes, said these classes are created in the areas where schools are not available and thousands of students had been offered the opportunity to study. On the bases of survey conducted recently there was need for more similar classes to be established in Dilaram, Khasrud and Chaharburjak district.

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