Expressing serious concern over rising school fees, rates of textbooks, stationery, increasing general price hike and falling real income of parents, Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor has said that very soon in Pakistan street children would outnumber the schoolchildren.
Talking to a delegation here Sunday, he said the disastrous economic policies of the sitting government have increased price hike to an unprecedented level. He said millions of poor families are finding it hard to feed their children, what to speak of sending them to school. He said on roads and streets the number of street children and child beggars has suddenly increased in almost every city and town which would further swell as new hordes of the out of school children of poor families would soon join them.
He said joblessness is at its zenith and even the employed low-salaries workers are finding it very difficult to meet the schooling expenses of their children. He said the trend of sending children to workshops, tailoring and barber shops, tire puncture kiosks, teashops and eateries to learn some skill while earn something for their siblings is now getting even more popular amongst the poor families. He said now more small boys and girls are working as housemaids than ever before. He said the situation would take a worse turn as the failure economic policies of the PTI government have now left no ray of hope on the horizon.
Altaf Shakoor said without educating and training our children and youth we cannot make Pakistan a developed and prosperous country. He said the government, at both federal and provincial levels, should invest more in social sector, particularly education to pave way for a real Naya Pakistan. He said the hollow slogans of the regime is not making any new Pakistan, but also making worse our dear old one.
He said the rulers instead of telling lies to the countrymen and making tall claims should seriously focus on economy and improve the living standards of Pakistanis by creating more job opportunities in every sector. He said the neglected sectors of national economy like modernization of agriculture, water conservation, solar energy, introducing technical and vocational education at every level and ending class-based education system should be given a very serious focus, and the government-sector educational institutions should be totally overhauled as they are presently not producing the trained and skilled persons really needed by market.
Altaf Shakoor said it is high time that the government should take notice of the increasing number of street children and decreasing number of school enrolments, especially in the localities and communities of poor population and devise some workable mechanism to subsidize school fees and textbooks and other educational accessories for the children of working calls people.—PR
