GCT announces to support Sindh govt to enrol 4.2mn illiterate children

• Children Carnival will be held on 14 December, hosted by the Arts Council to mark the Silver Jubilee of the GCT.
• GCT CEO said that out-of-school children in Sindh posed a serious challenge to the progress and development of the entire country.
• The Arts Council President said on the occasion that the reason Arts Council had collaborated with the GCT to hold the latter’s silver jubilee festivities.

KARACHI: The Green Crescent Trust (GCT) celebrating the silver jubilee of its foundation has offered voluntary services to Sindh government to completely overhaul and upgrade its school education sector in view of its own success story of establishing over 150 not-for-profit schools in remote areas of the province having enrolment of 29,000 students.

The GCT Chief Executive Officer Zahid Saeed made an offer to this effect while addressing a press conference along with the Arts Council Karachi President Muhammad Ahmed Shah on Wednesday.

The press conference was held as the prelude to a Children Carnival being held on 14 December, 2019 being hosted by the Arts Council to mark the Silver Jubilee of the GCT. Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi will be the chief guest of the Children Carnival.

“We have successfully proved our model as to how best to utilize public and corporate donations to provide quality education to the children belonging to underprivileged areas of Sindh including that of the backward area of Thar,” said GCT CEO on the occasion of the press conference.

He said it is time that similar interventions should be introduced to completely overhaul the public school education sector of Sindh, which required improvements both on qualitative and quantitative fronts.

“Be it the mechanism of the adopt-the-school programme or the famed public-private partnership initiative of Sindh government, we are all willing to provide full assistance to the provincial authorities concerned to overhaul, expand, and modernize the school education sector of Sindh,” he said.

The GCT CEO said that out-of-school children in Sindh posed a serious challenge to the progress and development of the entire country as emergency interventions were required to overcome this challenge.

“The quality of education being imparted at the existing government-run schools has to be markedly improved along with upgrading its infrastructure. While at the same time a new revolutionary strategy has to be adopted wherever new public schools have to be built to enrol these illiterate children,” he said.

He said that enrolling 4.2 million out-of-school children in the province was a daunting challenge alone for the provincial government as the non-governmental sector had to come forward to get this problem resolved.

“We as a not-for-profit entity working in the education sector of the province will provide assistance to Sindh government in whatever way it is required as these issues like out-of-school children could only be overcome through collaborative efforts,” he said.

Zahid Saeed said that other NGOs in the education sector should also come forward to lend support to provincial government in this regard.

“In the meanwhile, we will continue to expand our network of not-for-profit schools in the province so that more number of underprivileged children of Sindh get the chance of enrolling for quality school education, he said.

“Our mission in the education sector will continue with the support of our generous donors, partners, and sponsors who have been untiringly supporting us for last 25 years. We are indeed thankful for their unwavering support,” he said.

The Arts Council President said on the occasion that the reason Arts Council had collaborated with the GCT to hold the latter’s silver jubilee festivities was the council’s objective to support such not-for-profit initiatives to provide quality education to the children of needy families in the province.