Volunteer education program for illiterates annnounced by Ishrat ul Ibad

By Tehmina Qureshi

Thursday, 30th September: Governor of Sindh announced the formation of a volunteer education program to be piloted by the University of Karachi in which 150 000 students would take part, and teach illiterates to read and write. He also stressed the need to initiate a volunteer program in universities for their students.

Dr. Ishrat ul Ibad was responding to questions posed by almost 100 students who had been invited to the Governor House for an interactive session with the Governor, along with the Vice Chancellor, Pro Vice Chancellor, Registrar, and faculty members of KU.  The governor also had an hour long meeting before the session with the Vice Chancellor of Karachi University.

During the question and answer session, students from Mass Communication informed the Governor about a “briefing” they had been given about not asking controversial questions. The governor however, immediately encouraged everyone to ask whatever they wanted to, but he refrained from answering them. The students questioned the governor about illegal student politics and the presence of armed rangers inside the university.

The hot topics for questions and requests to Dr. Ibad were about the lack of enough points in the University for commuting,  and illegal political activities at the campus.

In his remarks Dr. Ibad stressed the need to channelize the students’ enthusiasm which was exemplary in volunteering for the aid of flood victims and lauded the spirit shown in coming to the governor house for helping in the packing of gifts for those affected by floods.  He said that the youth are frustrated about the problems of their country but nation building needs time and patience. He said that the problems of Pakistan were more diverse than other countries of the same age like, India and China. He also remarked that out of the total votes, only 12 to 15 percent were literate votes. 

The students part of the volunteer education program will each teach five to six illiterate people to read and write. The Governor also stressed the need for volunteer work to made part of the curriculum with the incentives of 10 marks and certificates.

The Vice Chancellor, Dr. Peerzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui praised the students’ enthusiasm about volunteer work and highlighted the varsity’s efforts in raising and the aid of flood victims.

Related report on this link: http://thefinancialdaily.com/news/national/illiterates-to-get-education-vows-ebad-9411.aspx