Poor kids to get primary education at doorstep

FARIDKOT: To hone educational skills of slum kids, particularly out-of-school girls, the District Red Cross Society and the School Education Department in Faridkot have started organising evening classes in the slum area of Sanjay Nagar here to enable these children to join the mainstream schools.

Poor children at an evening class in Sanjay Nagar, a slum area in Faridkot, on Tuesday. A Tribune photograph

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, April 24

To hone educational skills of slum kids, particularly out-of-school girls, the District Red Cross Society and the School Education Department in Faridkot have started organising evening classes in the slum area of Sanjay Nagar here to enable these children to join the mainstream schools.

In a first such evening class on Tuesday, organised at a dharamshala in Sanjay Nagar, 22 out-of-school children were identified to be imparted primary education.

“It is said that we are here to make the world beautiful and to serve humanity, so we ought to motivate people to do good deeds and keep the bad in check. Education is the best tool to serve the humanity as it brings creativity to solve problems,” said Dr Dipti Prashar, chairman, District Red Cross Society, Faridkot.

Struggling to deal with daily problems involving infrastructure access and livelihoods, many children in slum areas often limit or forgo their schooling, cutting short their future educational potential and the economic and social opportunities, as well as skills, that education affords, said Dr Prashar.

“To break this vicious cycle, we are organising evening classes for these out-of-school kids to ease the process of learning for them though enjoyable activities and interactive sessions,” said Dharambir Singh, deputy district education officer (elementary), Faridkot.

As most of these poor children are scared of subjects like English, science and mathematics, so we just want to hone educational skills of these children in the age group of 5 to 14 yrs and bring them to the mainstream schools after three months of evening classes, said Dr Prashar.

At the time of joining the evening classes, these children have been provided all school relating kits. They and their parents will also be taught about the Right to Education and their access to free education to boost up their morale, said Dharambir Singh. Even a government school teacher has been deputed to help these students in the evening classes.