Monthly Archives: July 1987

Fight against illiteracy: an uphill task

By Nafisa Hoodbhoy and Zubeida Mustafa

“Bina parhayjo waqt gunwaya”, the powerful TV jingle, came to mind as we walked one after-‘ noon through a long dusty corridor of a government school in Korangi. We (were on a surprise visit to one of the Nai Roshni schools.

Going up a flight of stairs in the school building, we came upon a classroom without window panes. Seated on dusty wooden benches, with books open before them on rickety desks .were 24 boys in dishevelled shalwar-kameez and chappals. They listened intently as their young bearded teacher taught numerals on the blackboard with almost religious devotion.

This was a maths class in progress at the Nai Roshni school. After the teacher had finished he called upon one of the children to come and recite the tables. The boy did so with great zeal in a sing-song tone and the class repeated the lesson after him. Even when the child made a mistake the class did not falter. It was the teacher who would intervene. Obviously the emphasis was on the rote method so common in the schools here. Continue reading Fight against illiteracy: an uphill task

Budget and health sector: low allocations, poor achievement

By Zubeida Mustafa

IT IS a measure of the government’s poor commitment to public health that one of the largest cuts instituted in the revised Federal ADP now announced is for this sector.

From Rs 810 million, the allocation for health has been scaled down to Rs 736 million, which is considerably less than what was spent in 1986-87. The health sector will receive less this year in the Sind ADP too, the allocation having been reduced from Rs 364.6 million in 1986-87 to Rs 360.6 million in 1987-88. Continue reading Budget and health sector: low allocations, poor achievement