KARACHI: Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah has directed education authorities to increase school enrolment to six million, open 2,170 viable schools under the placement plan, and remove the biometrics of 1,700 teachers from non-viable schools. He issued these instructions while chairing a meeting on 29 July in Karachi. The meeting was attended by Secretary School Education Sindh Zahid Ali Abbasi, Special Secretary Education Syed Junaid Ahmed, Additional Secretary Ghulam Akbar Barhamani, Chief
Child Rights in Focus
NAROWAL: The children’s nursery ward at the Shakargarh Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) Hospital has remained non-functional for the last two years, leading to an increase in newborn deaths. Despite Narowal being given district status 33 years ago and the establishment of a nursery ward at the Narowal District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital in 2011, Shakargarh tehsil continues to lack basic health facilities. Shakargarh tehsil, comprising over six hundred villages adjacent to international and working boundaries, is
TOBA TEK SINGH: A minor Christian girl, allegedly kidnapped some five months ago, has been recovered and handed over to her parents in Chak 233 RB, Hari Singhwala, Faisalabad. According to an FIR registered on Feb 11 under sections 376, 364, 365, 420, 468, and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code, Laiba, 11, daughter of complainant Suhail Maseeh, was abducted by Irfan Maseeh and his five accomplices and later handed over to Shafqat Shah
LAHORE: Lahore Arts Council Alhamra and the National Commission on the Rights of the Child (NCRC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to advocate for and protect children’s rights. The signing ceremony featured Alhamra Chairman Razi Ahmed and NCRC Chairperson Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq. The partnership highlights children’s rights through various artistic and cultural platforms, including literature, theatre, music, and painting. Both institutions are committed to leveraging these mediums to raise awareness about
Two families lose siblings in a tube well, swamp DASKA: Four children drowned in two incidents reported from the Daska area during the past 48 hours. According to local officials, nine-year-old Mudassir and eight-year-old Umair, sons of Qamar, drowned while bathing after going along with their mother to their outhouse. The siblings went to bathe in the water flowing from a tube well to irrigate the fields. Their mother got busy with some work.
PESHAWAR: As the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government faces a financial crisis, education in the province is likely to take a hit since the authorities have reportedly decided to sell lands owned by the education department to address the financial shortfall, sources told Geo News on 27, July. The sources said that the land bought for the Bacha Khan Greater Educational Complex in Mardan would be put on sale to clear the payments of landowners.
LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Ali Zia Bajwa has directed the government to establish observation homes to provide safe shelter for juveniles in every district. Instructing the government to ensure prompt implementation of the Juvenile Act in a judgment, Justice Bajwa issued eight directives, observing that the physical separation of juveniles from adult offenders in detention facilities is non-negotiable, with separate lockups and detention centres for young offenders. Justice Bajwa disposed of a
Two women and a teenage girl were murdered by their relatives in the name of so-called honour in separate heart-rending incidents in the city on 24 July. The gruesome murders once again show the danger to life women face in our society for merely making choices about their own lives. In a tragic incident in Quaidabad, a mother-of-two whose husband works abroad, was killed at her home, with initial investigations suggesting that her brother-in-law
QUETTA: The National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) coordinator has stressed the need to launch effective anti-polio campaigns and improve routine immunisation to eradicate the poliovirus. Only three to four effective anti-polio campaigns are required to eliminate the virus fully, Anwarul Haq, a retired army captain, said while chairing a high-level meeting at the Zhob commissioner’s office on Saturday. Mr Haq acknowledged that the current year`s situation was worse than last year, with environmental samples
Child Marriage, one of the unfortunate and rampant trends, takes place in several parts of the country despite being prohibited under the relevant laws. Child marriage is a serious violation of children’s rights, something that ensures gender inequality. Young girls, in particular, are denied to enjoy their rights to education and freedom, instead bounding them into lifelong commitments. Consequently, young girls experience enormous issues of health due to early pregnancy and frequently bear the
LAHORE: For a society that still refuses to consider child labour as a gross violation of the rights of children, innumerable girls from impoverished households continue to work as domestic workers and nannies across affluent households in the country. While some of these girls are lucky to find humane employers, many others end up in the violent hold of abusive families, who in the absence of a cohesive child abuse case management system, easily
Disconnection from nature is a catalyst for the present environmental crisis and several physical, mental, and emotional illnesses. With mental health challenges on the rise in the US and climate change on the brink of becoming irreversible, there is an urgent need for educators who can help restore our sense of connection with nature. That’s the mission of Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education, a nonprofit group that helps participants remember “that we are