Swat’s largest science festival begins in Saidu Sharif

MINGORA: Swat's largest science festival for schoolchildren began here at the Khadee Hall in Saidu Sharif on Tuesday to promote better quality of learning available in government schools.

The two-day festival has been organised by Udhyaana, Swat Education Department and Pakistan Alliance for Maths and Science. Commissioner, Malakand Division, Syed Zaheerul Islam, Deputy Commissioner Shahid Mehmood, Assistant Commissioner Shahab Khan, Nazim Muhammad Ali Shah and District Education Officer Nawab Ali inaugurated the event.

The first day of the festival attracted a massive attendance of 1,500 girls and 5,000 boys from over 130 government and private schools of Swat district. Teachers, entrepreneurs, science specialists, government officials and Member Provincial Assembly Fazal Hakim attended the festival. The students exhibited more than 100 science models showing their passion for science and technology. They introduced innovative concepts to the visitors.

Interactive displays and live experiments, some of which involved robotics, hydraulics, electrical circuits, and easy-to-understand math guides, were conducted by the students and six science organisations from across Pakistan. The organisations included Learn-o-Bots, Stemmers, Numerica, Pakistan Science Club, AZ Corps and Sabaq.

Educationists pointed out that Swat was at the receiving end due to extremism and violence from 2007 to 2009. It resulted in decreased opportunities for girls to access education. The district is now in its recovery phase.

They said girls and boys are now going to schools, albeit certain challenges remain. One of these includes poor learning outcomes with only 40.2 percent students in Grade 5 being able to read a story in Urdu/Pashto. Only 44 percent students in Class 5 can solve a 2-digit division sum.

The experts noted that quality-oriented interventions can help provide children with an enabling environment to pursue and absorb high-quality learning, and push for an increased focus on improvements in maths and science learning inside classrooms. This could prove to be instrumental in Swat's response to the opportunities available to the district, as well as to the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at large.

It may be added that under the supervision of National Academy of Young Scientists, 1,036 students created first-ever national record of simultaneously extracting DNA from strawberries, and 955 students made a human chain to represent the structure of the DNA. These records will be published in Pakistan Book of Records.