Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA): Education, Hope and Challenges.
The latest episode of Jarga Maraka (debate and council) on October 9, 2017, highlighted the need for improving the education standards for the students of FATA. The program also discussed various challenges of education in the region, particularly the situation of damaged schools in FATA.
Mr. Azad Khan Wazir, Deputy Director of Education FATA, was the studio guest in the show. He stated that there are 5,991 educational institutions in the region for up to 681,000 FATA students. The enrollment campaign that had run for a year resulted in an increase of 18,813 teachers and 176,000 schoolchildren. He also said that this improvement could be seen in the addition of a university, 35 colleges, 21 government model schools and hundreds of schools for boys and girls.
Furthermore, the Directorate established an independent monitoring unit to ensure the quality of education and the effective performance of the model. Mr. Azad said that up to PKR 23 million had been deducted from the salaries of teachers that were absent in the first 10 months of the implementation of the model.
A CRSS correspondent report was played during the show, explaining the real cost of damages sustained by schools because of militancy. As many as six listeners took part in the program through calls.
About Sabawoon:
Sabawoon airs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) since 2011. It began as a counter-radicalization, strategic communications programme, designed to highlight and promote the fundamental governance values such as democracy, rule of law, women’s rights, and equal citizenry, social cohesion.
The show airs Monday through Thursday every week under four themes on FM-101.5 Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan 711 KHZ from 3:20 PM to 4:00 PM.
On Monday, Jarga Maraka covers current affairs and important regional issues with an input from government and other senior officials. On Tuesday, Da Simay Jaaj gives an overview of the top stories from KP and FATA regions. Jwandai Jazbey airs on Wednesday and deals with issues of relevance to, and significance for, youth, students and women. Socio-cultural affairs are discussed in Ranra on Thursday. And last but not the least, a road show named Taroon highlights the social issues such as civic education.
The primary objective of the show has been to underline the criticality of constitutionalism, fundamental rights, public accountability and the rule of law for countering extremism illegalities of all forms.