ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Feb 25 officially launched the No Child Left Behind campaign to bring all out-of-school children into classrooms within the next three years. Pakistan has an alarming 26 million out-of-school children across the country, with no exception in the federal capital, where thousands of children remain out of school. According to the Ministry of Education, the drive is a focused and time-bound initiative aimed
Child Rights in Focus
CHINIOT: In the aftermath of the death of a girl at school in Sialkot, the public schools across Punjab have been directed to cordon off under-construction structures and depute one teacher whole time during the school hours to stop the children getting close to under-construction structures. On directions of School Education Department, Chiniot District Education Authority’s Chief Executive Officer Azhar Sohail Niazi has issued instruction and precautionary measures and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to
KARACHI: The city saw two deaths from rabies on Tuesday, raising the total number of mortalities from the deadly viral disease to six in the province. The dog-bite victims — 75-year-old Naimat Gul hailing from Lyari and 10-year-old Lata from Mirpurkhas — had been admitted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the Indus Hospital on Monday. “The Lyari resident was brought to the hospital’s emergency department where he passed away within 24
RAWALPINDI: An incident of alleged sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy in a madrassa at the hands of a seminary teacher, Ibrahim Yaseen, was reported in Rawalpindi on Feb 25. The First Information Report (FIR), reported in the jurisdiction of Gujar Khan Police Station, states that the 12-year-old boy was studying at a madrassa in his village at the village mosque, a double-story building. After completing his duty of calling the prayer (azaan), the
NADRA’S decision to issue CNICs to first-time applicants without requiring them to produce a birth certificate is a practical step. For years, the lack of a computerised birth certificate issued by local governments, especially in rural and underserved districts, has kept thousands of citizens, mostly women, from obtaining a national identity card. In many areas, births are never formally registered, or are recorded in informal ways that fail to meet CNIC requirements, resulting in
KARACHI: A sessions court has sentenced two men to life imprisonment in a kidnap and rape case Additional District and Sessions Judge Abdul Zahoor Chandio, who is also the presiding officer of the Gender-Based Violence Court (South), found Muhammad Arif alias Tunga and Shahbaz alias Chabba guilty and sentenced them on two counts: life imprisonment for committing rape and additional years of jail for kidnapping. However, both the sentences would run concurrently, the court
TAXILA: The headmaster of Government Boys High School Hazro has been suspended following a shocking incident in which a Grade-7 student was seriously injured when another student stabbed him on the school premises, officials confirmed on Feb 23. According to rescue and police sources, the incident occurred during school hours when a minor dispute between two students reportedly turned violent. In a fit of anger over what officials described as a petty disagreement, one
ISLAMABAD: The capital police have arrested 588 professional beggars and registered cases against them in the current year as a crackdown against organised beggars’ mafia continued. The identification process of the facilitators of beggars is ongoing with the help of Safe City cameras and human intelligence sources, said the police in a statement. “Under the special directions of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad, Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, Islamabad Police have continued comprehensive operations
RAHIM YAR KHAN: Some video clips surfacing on social media showing students of a government school in the district, who were allegedly made to do hard physical tasks, like transporting bricks and cleaning classroom, have caused concern among the parents and the civil society. These video clips was allegedly recorded at the Government Boys High School at Chak 72-NP on Shahbazpur Road, where young students were engaged in cleaning activities and manually transporting bricks
PESHAWAR: The elementary and secondary education department has directed all the education boards to stop conducting matriculation and intermediate examinations of the students enrolled in private high and higher secondary schools that are not registered with Private Schools Regulatory Authority (PSRA). “Around 387 private high and higher secondary schools are not registered with PSRA but all of them are affiliated with education boards that are conducting matriculation and intermediate examinations of their students,” an
ISLAMABAD: Drug-resistant pathogens causing sepsis, ventilator-associated pneumonia, difficult-to-treat urinary infections and drug-resistant tuberculosis are now among Pakistan’s most serious public health threats, federal health officials say, warning that antimicrobial resistance in priority bacterial and fungal pathogens could claim more than 262,000 lives in the country over the next 25 years unless antibiotic misuse and infection control failures are addressed. Pakistan has become the first country in the World Health Organisation’s Eastern Mediterranean Region to
LAHORE: Punjab’s education system is increasingly being taken over by the private sector, as government policies falter and public institutions are pushed toward privatization. In recent years, academies have become essential for matric and intermediate exam preparation, fostering a marks-driven culture and leaving students heavily reliant on what is now a sprawling coaching cartel. The rising number of tuition centres is alarming educationists and parents alike. Poor teaching quality in government schools, heavy curricular