Al-Khadim Public School, Basti Murad Nun, District D.I. Khan
Location
Figure 1: Map showing proximity of Al-Sadiq School and D.I. Khan City to Al-Khadim Public School
The school is located in Basti Murad Nun (District D I Khan), in the sandy laps of River Indus (termed as KACCHA region in local slang). The closest town is Darya Khan, approx 30 km away, while the nearest road connection from the school is approx 2 km.
Existing educational facilities
At present, the school is populated with approximately 280 children coming from Basti Murad Nun and nearby villages. There do exist government schools in some of these villages but almost all of these are “ghost schools”: school buildings are there but teachers rarely show up. The main reason for poor attendance of government teachers is the lack of government monitoring due to remote location of the region and its difficult road access. Thus, literacy rate is still far below the acceptable level.
Start of Al-Khadim School
In 2008, locals of this area took an initiative and a private school was setup. The chief administrator was Mr. Kifayat Hussain who is a Masters degree holder and a resident of the same village. In 2011, the school was registered in D.I. Khan Board and was named Al-Khadim public school, in memory of Khadim Hussain Shaheed, a police inspector martyred in a terrorist attack in D.I. Khan. In the beginning, a government school building was used to meet the school requirements. Meanwhile, it was decided by the local population to construct its own building, for which they managed to collect PKR 400,000 using the monetary relief package that was provided by the government for 2010 floods. Using this amount, foundation of school building was laid and 4 classrooms were built. Few of the classes are accommodated in those rooms while other classes are conducted under open sky.
Involvement of Local Community
An impressive aspect of Al-Khadim School is the motivation and enthusiasm of local community towards educating their children. It is their interest that played a vital role in initiating and sustaining this setup. As an example of local community’s motivation, despite their humble financial state, parents are willing to pay up to Rs 1,500 per month as fee amount for each student in 9th Grade.
PROSPER International and Al-Khadim School
After initial engagement of our Pakistan team with the locality, and the school administration, it was decided that Al-Khadim School is an ideal choice to be supported by PROSPER International for the following reasons.
- The locality is remote and deprived of the basic facilities.
- Local community is eager to be involved in the school project.
- An educated, highly motivated and trust-worthy local resource is available in the form of Mr. Kifayat Hussain.
- Due to close proximity to Al-Sadiq School, students graduating from 10th grade from Al-Khadim School can be admitted into 11th grade at Al-Sadiq Public School, while availing its boarding facility (when Phase-2 of Al-Sadiq School is completed, Insha Allah). This will further increase the impact of PROSPER’s investment in Al-Sadiq School.
School needs
With 9th grade Physics, Chemistry and Biology subjects become part of the curriculum, thus require specialist science teachers. The most critical problem that the school had been facing was the availability of teachers. PROSPER International became actively involved in this school project and has helped them in the following ways.
- In the beginning a multimedia projector and a laptop were provided to allow students to be trained through video lectures for the science subjects. In addition, teachers from Al-Sadiq School were periodically taken to Al-Khadim School to give on-campus teaching session and answer any questions students had.
- Recently PROSPER International has helped the school administration hire a full-time Science teacher. PROSPER International is paying for the teacher’s salary.
- This year students from Al-Khadim school will be appearing in Grade 9th board exam for the first time from Al-Sadiq School’s platform.