Education: the key to a brighter future
With support from Dubai Cares, Oxfam is helping more young girls in Pakistan enjoy a quality primary education.
![Children have a lesson outside by their dilapidated school building. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]](images/disrepair.jpg "Children have a lesson outside by their dilapidated school building. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]")
In many rural areas of Pakistan schools lack basic facilities – in the Punjab alone there are more than 4,000 dangerous school buildings. In some cases lessons have to be held outside because the school buildings are simply not safe to be used. This can have a big impact on attendance levels, especially when the weather is bad.
Photo: Ayesha Shaukat
Share this page
![Shabana and her friends sit outside during a lesson. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]](images/children_outside3.jpg "Shabana and her friends sit outside during a lesson. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]")
Seven-year-old Shabana is a pupil at the Government Girls' Primary School in Rahim Yar Khan.
“I don’t like having my lessons outside in the sun,” she says. “My mother says this is what sometimes makes me ill.”
Photo: Ayesha Shaukat
![Children having a lesson outside on the school terrace. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]](images/multan_school.jpg "Children having a lesson outside on the school terrace. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]")
Working with the local community, Oxfam has been helping renovate school facilities including building much needed new classrooms, toilets, boundary walls and playgrounds to help make schools more child-friendly.
Photo: Ayesha Shaukat
![Teacher Samina Bibi. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]](images/samina_bibi.jpg "Teacher Samina Bibi. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]")
Teacher Samina Bibi has already noticed the difference:
"Before, there wasn't enough space to accommodate all the children in the classrooms or the veranda. The students stayed at home when it rained. Things are changing now. One classroom is being added to the school so that rainy days will not be a problem again."
Photo: Ayesha Shaukat
![Before and after photo of the new toilets at the Girls' School in Sheikhwala. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]](images/latrine_beforeafter.jpg "Before and after photo of the new toilets at the Girls' School in Sheikhwala. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]")
At the Girls' School in Sheikhwala the new toilets (see before and after photos above) have been very popular:
“When there was no toilet everyone kept running off to their homes every now and then to use the toilets," teacher Asma Perveen told us. "This was especially problematic for girls – many dropped out of school because of this. Now our classes won’t be disrupted anymore.”
Photo: Ayesha Shaukat
![Ghulam Fatima (left) with other school committee members. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]](images/ghulam_fatima.jpg "Ghulam Fatima (left) with other school committee members. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]")
We've also been working with local school management committees to involve the community with school issues.
"When I found out that a project to improve the primary school had started I joined the committee. Now there are meetings almost every month to discuss school issues. We have made sure that the teachers are more reliable," explains Ghulam Fatima (above far left).
Photo: Ayesha Shaukat
![Bilquis Bibi sewing new school clothes for her daughter. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]](images/bilquis_bibi.jpg "Bilquis Bibi sewing new school clothes for her daughter. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]")
Bilquis Bibi is new member of the Government Girls' School in Gulabwala's school committee where her daughter is a pupil.
"My daughter is more eager to attend the school now. We are seeing a lot of changes here. It's not just that walls and classrooms are being built," she told us while stitching a new school uniform for her daughter.
Photo: Ayesha Shaukat
![Children in class. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]](images/class.jpg "Children in class. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]")
The quality of the teaching can be an important factor in attendance levels at school so we've been running special teacher-training workshops.
"Since the training we try to do things differently," explains Samina Bibi. "I use everyday examples and encourage my students to talk to me. I try not to focus on rote learning or lecturing any more and I think the children are responding."
Photo: Ayesha Shaukat
![Allah Diwaaya and his wife Sardar Mai. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]](images/allah_diwaaya.jpg "Allah Diwaaya and his wife Sardar Mai. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]")
Allah Diwaaya and his wife Sardar Mai are both happy to see their granddaughter's school being renovated.
"I used to bake bricks and sometimes people would cheat me out of money when I sold them," Allah Diwaaya tells us. "At least my granddaughter will now be able to read, write, and count. She will not be cheated out of her wages. Education will help her move up in the world."
Photo: Ayesha Shaukat
![Hina reading from a schoolbook. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]](images/hina.jpg "Hina reading from a schoolbook. [Photo credit: Ayesha Shaukat]")
At the Girls' Primary School in Gulabwala, Irshad Bibi's daughter is already benefiting from changes at the school.
"I think the school will do really well with the classroom renovation. Now we will have a good government school near our house my daughter, Hina, will go to this school."
Photo: Ayesha Shaukat
