Rashid Baloch (12) works as a laborer in a garage in Balochistan’s Awaran district. When the sun rises, he moves to his garage in his town in Terteej and returns with the sunset.
For his all-day services, he receives a sum of eight thousand rupees which helps a little with his financial status. In the quest for making a living, Rashid has left his education. Despite the fact that his eyes water looking at other children of his age going to school with school bags at their backs, he cannot help but keep himself from going to school.
Balochistan is quoted as the home for out-of-school children in Pakistan, with more than one million children away from schools, as revealed by UNICEF Pakistan’s report. According to data received from the Provincial Education Department, there are 12,218 primary schools (8,394 for boys, 3,140 for girls, and 684 for co-education), 1,519 middle schools (872 for boys, 645 for girls, and 2 for co-education), 720 high schools, and 403 secondary high schools in the whole Balochistan province. Currently, the report says, 1 million and 4,242 children are enrolled in schools in the province, while another 1.89 million school-going children are away from schools. Alif Ailaan says more than 6,000 schools in Balochistan are run with a single teacher while some 5,000 teachers are ghosts in the province.
“There is a school in my village, but it has been closed for years,” says Raheem from Balgatar (Kech). To get an education, considering the fragile statuses of other schools in the nearby areas too, one has to turn to the main Turbat city (some 135 kilometers from Balgatar, which takes per travel 500 to 700 rupees) or Panjgoor (which is some 120 kilometers away from the village and takes 500 to 700 rupees per travel) for which most people in the area cannot afford due to poverty and no relatives. “Who does not want their children to study, but I know how hard my family is going through to make it from hand to mouth,” says Raheem, looking deep into the desolated farms near his home.
The report of Alif Ailan says that after every 30 kilometers, there is a primary school in Balochistan; with a journey of 250 kilometers, there is a middle school present, and after traveling for 260 kilometers, one gets to a high school in Balochistan’s province. While the poverty ratio of the province, as the data shared by UNDP Pakistan shows, is 71%, it makes it even harder for these children to get a better education, or I may better say education, away from their village.
When I inquired about the lack of schools in many other villages of Balgatar, Mr. Zahoor Ahmed Buledi, former provincial finance minister and representative of the given constituency, said that when he was in the government’s finance office, he had himself added the construction of schools in the budget which, he says, were later on removed with the government shift.
“I study in the morning and work at night in a hotel to continue my education,” says 15-year-old Yasir Baloch from Gresha, studying in matric and working in Turbat. He is now working and managing his income, but he is worried about a higher education, which he feels is at risk when he finishes his school life. Things become tougher during college and
University level, where I am afraid I won’t get enough time for working,” Yasir says, thinking of the workload he will receive in his varsity classes.
Many children leave studies when they graduate from the primary school in their village, as most villages in Balochistan only have a primary school. One reason is a lack of educational institutes in the province, and the other is poverty. After quitting studies, they look for a job to make a living, which enhances the illiteracy rate in the province. While some others, when they find attending classes a hindrance to their financial management, choose to go with private degrees in intermediate, Bachelors, and Masters. But there is no alternative to private classes in the middle and high sections of school life for which the students quit permanently.
“I was studying in class 2 when I left,” says Bahad (7 years) from Kassak village of Kech district. When I asked what he does now, he directed his cattle and said he also sang in marriages in nearby villages and receives little money, which he gives back to his parents. “We live our life, and that is all we need,” he told me, looking at his father with a smile he was not willing to portray.
“We know education is important, but we are too poor to carry our sons and daughters far in the village every day for education,” says Allah Bakhsh, the father of Bahad. They live in the mountainous range some 4 kilometers away from Kassak village. They are basically shepherds who usually visit the nearby gardens during the date season to get their share.
In Makran, farmers have a separate share for poor and needy people, which is donated to people living in the mountainous ranges. They are usually assigned various talks to increase their share, for which they themselves work and also ask their children to join them. Resultantly, the children have to quit schools to support their parents in working on the farms.
“For us, back in the government, provision of educational facilities was a core planning,” says Mr. Buledi. He adds that they were working on creating more schools in the province to enroll more and more children in schools. “We at the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will try to bridge all these gaps in Balochistan very soon,” he says.