By, Naseer Abdullah
Perander Gazi, a remote area of Awaran, is witnessing a pivotal change in girls’ education. Gazi is an area where the government failed to fulfill the people’s basic rights; an individual, a woman, is fulfilling that promise. Where people are caught between poverty and deprivation, Perandar Gazi is a far-flung area that is 25 km from Awaran town. We had travelled from town; it took 30 minutes to reach Gazi from town on a Suzuki bike to Gazi School, which has no building but a hut filled with children, where Haseena Baloch teaches them for no money. Haseena is a resident of Gazi. She has been running the school for over 8 years with no support.
She wants to get each child in her area educated. She says, “Our people are poor and are not educated, nor can they afford to get their children’s education, so they send them to schools where I teach for free. But changes have been noticed in the past; people are now sending their children very interestingly. We have a large increase in admissions, and we now have 80 plus students; most of them are students from the 1st class,” she added.
Perandar Primary School, Rasol Bux Bazar, was first built in 2017. This initiative was started by Miss Bilqees Baloch, a 22-year-old Baloch woman, also a resident of Gazi. She is an EST teacher, recently posted there at the public’s demand. She stated that after two months of the initiative, NRSP owned the school and supported us. NRSP appointed two teachers on a monthly salary basis for one year. After one year, they also disowned the school. Since then, Haseena Baloch, who was first appointed by NRSP after the two months of the school being built, continued teaching voluntarily.
Children in school were found very passionate for knowledge. Aman, an 11-year-old child, also delivered a speech for us in English on Knowledge is Power. The little kid in a remote area like Gazi impressively delivered the speech. Girls from 1st to 5th showed their passion by reciting Naat, poetry, Balochi poetry, Hamd, speeches, and reading their lessons one by one. The students were very passionate about knowledge but lacked the basic needs in their classroom in the hut. Students stated their needs too; they asked us very bravely to record their video statement speaking about the school. Zartaj from class 3 said, “We don’t have syllabus books, markers, or uniforms; we can’t afford to buy a uniform.”
Nine-year-old Baji Gul said, recording his video message, “We don’t have a carpet to sit on; we are supposed to sit on stones here inside the hut. We demand the basic needs and a school building for us.” She innocently requested in her video to spread her message, demanding these basic rights.
Miss Bilqees’ home is located near the school. The self-funded school has no teacher except Haseena, who was teaching voluntarily alone from class 1 to class 5. But still, Bilqees was posted from here to 10 kilometers away at Perandar Dahl School from her home, from a school where her presence is needed the most for the students of the school. She must be posted here as it is her hometown on a permanent basis, as demanded by the students.
Haseena Baloch, who has been running the school for over 8 years with no money, bringing hope to children, has no job. She has applied for teaching jobs many times but hasn’t been appointed. Recently, nearly 900 teachers were recruited under SBK (Sardar Bahadur Khan Women University). She also applied but was not appointed, unfortunately. Those who were appointed under this program are absent from their duty and freely living out of the city, enjoying their salaries.
This is Naseer Abdullah, a Freelance journalist from Balochistan based in Islamabad, covering Balochistan for various National and Foreign Media outlets.
