With EFS help, low-cost schools rise to the challenge

Karachi
With the public education system in shambles, low-cost private schooling (LCPS) has risen to fill the vacuum and provide thousands of out-of-school children an opportunity to continue their learning.
A not-for-profit organisation, Education Fund for Sindh (EFS), by promoting and helping establishment of low-cost private schools has been able to bring more than 86,000 children to schools under its Taleem Aam Program. So far, the EFS, through its program, has been able to bring more than 500 low-cost private schools under its umbrella to enrol out-of-school children.
Under the program, children are lured to school via a voucher scheme through which the charges of education are borne by the EFS.
Last year, an AIMS Public School in Bilal Colony enrolled 334 out-of-school children through the Taleem Aam Program. Out of the total number of students, only 13 dropped out while the remaining 287 continued their education and were promoted to higher classes.
The school is located in Korangi district of Karachi and offers education will the fifth grade to both boys and girls, most of whom come from underprivileged families, The News learnt during a visit to the area.
“We have multiple examples from the locality where parents were not sending their children to school because they couldn’t afford it,” said Mohammad Riaz, the principal of AIMS Public School. “As a consequence the children ended up doing labour, and fell prey to drug abuse and criminal activities. But under the Taleem Aam Program they can now study and become responsible members of the society.”
Asad Mughni of EFS told The News that process of enrolment began by identifying and registering the out-of-school children between the ages of five and 10 years.
“Once registered in the EFS database, they are then enrolled in a partner school situated within the area and are supported by us in terms of the cost of tuition, books and uniform,” he said.
“We lay utmost importance on the education of girls. Out of the total children enrolled under the Taleem Aam Program, 47 percent are girls.”
Mughni said to encourage awareness about the program and garner support of parents, the EFS teams actively engaged with local communities.
Explaining how schools were taken onboard as partners, he said all the registered facilities had to meet a few requirements. In return, the schools were them reimbursed through vouchers for the children’s cost of education after verification of the monthly attendance roster.
In the first phase of its program, the EFS set a target of enrolling 130,000 children in low-cost private schools in the districts of Karachi, Khairpur and Kambar-Shahdadkot by 2016.
Mughni said the challenge was to persuade parents who used their children as their helping hand. One of the parents, while talking to The News, said their child used to work as a mechanic but due to the opportunity provided by the Taleem Aam Program, he was no getting an education.