With the financial support of Unicef, the Balochistan Education Department has set up 220 centers under the Accelerated Learning Programme in various districts of the province.
The establishment of 220 centers is the progressive step towards development of the province. These centers have been set up mostly in areas where there are no government schools. More than 8,000 students are getting free education in these centres.
The major aim of the programme is to provide primary education to out-of-school children within 3 years as opposed to usual 6 years to overcome the age gap created because of school years missed by these children. The major objective behind launching of this programme was to make certain that the time of overage children did not go to waste.
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A tormenting aspect of the current state of affairs is the illiteracy of girls that most of the out-of-school children in Balochistan are girls.
One of the centres under this programme has been established in New Kahan area of Quetta in which 91 boys and girls are enrolled.
According to the remarks of parents of the students, their children spent most of their time picking up trash before the establishment of this centre in the area, and now they were getting education. They can speak and write Urdu and are also being taught English and mathematics.
Secretary of Secondary Education Sher Khan Bazai visited the centre in New Kahan and distributed school bags among students. While speaking on the occasion, he said that the children in the centre were being given free education along with books and other material. He added that steps were being taken to provide more facilities to students in these centers.
The secretary further said that full support was provided to these students under the Education Support Programme. He said full training was also being given to teachers of these centers through continuous professional development programme to improve the performance of these centers.
