Far away from the urban sprawl, where one can actually see the skyline dotted by mounds of sand, the summer school of the Bhitaiabad branch of the Citizens' Foundation is well into progress. This is their first experiment at a summer school to actually teach vocational skills to students which could "always come handy later on in life" says Seemi Saad excitedly chatting along as we bump over a winding track seemingly miles from civilization as we know it, ie Karachi.
But we are only just behind the old airport. On one side, the roughly made buildings, typical of katchi -abadi settlements rise up, while opposite, the land falls away in an amorphous haze of sand and prickly bushes. The school building is well constructed, breezy, with an inner courtyard, huge verandas and spacious classrooms, well equipped with proper desks, chairs etc, and clean walls. Its been designed by the architects Arshad, Shahid Abdullah, so obviously it would be well made. The school has a huge computer lab with about, at least fifteen flashy screens, buzzing on and off, a library, staff room etc, with wide halls and proper lighting and ventilation through large, breezy windows.
Its hard to imagine that this school, just an year old, is one of the many schools that the Citizen's Foundation has spread through the length and breadth of Pakistan, catering to the poor slum dwellers. The Foundation has already set-up 131 Primary schools,49 Secondary schools with an overall over 32,000 student capacity. The schools are able to accommodate at least 200-300 children. Most so-called English medium elite schools would turn green with envy at the premises.
The Citizen's Foundation, established in1995, appears to be an extremely large organization committed to working for Pakistan by providing the poor with proper basic education. It is not an easy task to fund and run a school let alone an entire network, but the Citizen's Foundation seems well fitted out to grapple with the task. Proud of the fact that they are not funded from abroad, but that the citizens of Pakistan chip in, the organization is run on donations from multinationals and individual donors, from the well-known to the lesser known. Events and promotions to raise funds also help supplement their income, while voluntary work in the form of donations or services in the form of internees or people willing to contribute with their time, experience and advise etc are channeled into their network to ensure that it is put to productive use.
Seemi bubbles that the response is overwhelming, "we have so many volunteers signing in from yuppydom, who find their lives a bit too unsatisfying and empty and perhaps want to give to society for a change, rather than merely expecting from it. We have young students from abroad who wish "to break out through to the other side." In normal language, who want to see life as it is for the majority of the country living on the poverty line, away from their plastic bubble.
The teachers of the summer school seem to be of that ilk, three young teachers , just graduated from Karachi Grammar school who are waiting for college to start abroad, two three young men, home for the summer or waiting to go abroad or to continue with their education. One young lady disillusioned with the vacuously glitzy life of the corporate world. So they have all converged on this spot, to bridge the great divide of the privileged and those without, to pass on their skills.
But as a rule, the Foundation has a proper army of trained teachers who are given intensive training both before the job as well as on the job and even during summer breaks. They are 'bussed' to their places of work and are closely supervised by a training department. They are also well-paid, according to current standards, Seemi informs me.
It is quite common for school and college students in the West to take up summer jobs. It serves the dual purpose of the students earning some money to help parents fund their education and to have money which they can call their own to spend. They also learn the value of money and are careful in spending as they learn how hard parents have to work to provide them with the comforts of life.
In Pakistan, the majority of the young do not get the opportunity to go to school. Those who do usually sit at home during summer vacations. Acquiring any kind of skill is frowned upon. While vocational training in developed countries is considered an asset.
The TCF's summer program, which ran for about a month, is meant to allow the children a chance to learn new skills, which would help them in life. Class starts at about 9:00 and ends at 1:00 with children from Grade 7 to Metric, both boys and girls. There is an English conversation class, for Computers, Cooking, taught by Copper Kettle's chef and Ceramics, Carpentry and Waxwork. Unfortunately, I made it to the school when most things had wound up and so am unable to give an eye witness account of things but the children seemed happy, confident and healthy. They were glad to be there with naughty little twinkles in their eyes which appear when they are up to some good or no good of the innocent kind. But at least they did not have that vacant, apathetic, glazed stare, so common of teenagers languishing in front of computer cafes. "They all have high hopes," continue Seemi "to be doctors, pilot etc." The education fees is minimal and the deserving are given aid at the school . The summer school is for free.
There were amazing wax works done by the children, desserts you could dig your spoon into to discover they were of wax and if you popped one of the enticingly gleaming black gulab jamun, winking from its box, in your mouth, you would, too late, discover not sweet liquid dissolving and melting in your mouth but wax. It gave me some ideas about people I wanted to surreptitiously get back at.
The computer lab was a haze of children, flickering screens and a teacher somewhere slinking like a shrinking wallflower into the background. Mr X , (we were not introduced ,) was supposed to have taught the children Excel or Word programs as if they were in an office, Seemi later revealed as we whirled through the lab.
The English conversation class had kind of unfastened its trappings, along the way, morphing into heated exchanges in Urdu. What could you expect when the topic was so volatile, "Should we be Muslims first or Pakistanis first", chaired by three young about- twentishers, studying abroad, to be studying abroad or in a mid-work situation.
Frames and chairs were the output of the Carpentry class, while a mound of cabbage, surrounded by about twenty -twenty five pairs of black, beady, eager eyes sat in the midst of the Cooking class . The Copper Kettle chef, nervously eyeing the growing pile and the gleeful children around it, was in the midst of the melee, teaching the children how to cook up a storm. We swished out into the as hazy, intangible sunlight. If the faces of the neat and smartly turned out children was any gauge, they were having a great time and doing well. The teachers, however, were not too sure about their aims or forthcoming in the too brief meeting as if taken by surprise. The Summer school is a good opportunity for the privileged to share their talents as well to see life on the other side and learn from them, and probably be inspired to help society. As one young teacher pointed out that these kids are very sharp. A first attempt is always experimental let us hope things take on more form and focus as expected of a large organization as the Citizens Foundation. With the rash of schools opening up all over Karachi, lets hope they are just not profit-making ventures but will turn Karachi into one of the most literate and hopefully civilized cities in the world.
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