1
Ishkomen (which translates to “heart’s
love”), contrasted with the poverty of its
people. Still, despite their poverty, there
were two primary schools in the valley.
The first school, Tameer-e-Millet primary
school, got its name from a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that supported the
school after a visiting engineer constructed it
several years earlier.
By 2010, the school closed down;
CAI intervened and adopted it in 2011.
Renovations included adding washrooms, a
boundary wall, and an office for the teachers.
The finishing touch was the gift of uniforms
and school supplies.
In trying to explain the past failure of the
school, a village elder named Mayoon Khan,
pointed to poverty as the primary reason
it was abandoned. It was difficult to lure
teachers from more developed places to stay
in the village of Tashnaluk. Additionally,
some parents had misgivings about an outside organization educating their children.
Consequently, enrollment had been very
FALL 2015
low when the school first reopened.
In response, CAI asked a local religious cleric to encourage families to
send their children to school. The plan
was a success. Now the school has two
full-time teachers, enrollment is up,
and classes go up to the third grade.
The teachers have been given training
in early childhood development techniques, and students struggling with
language courses learn basic phonics
to improve their proficiency. A committee has even been formed in the
village to run the school in order to
engage parents as stakeholders.
It was heart-warming to see that all
50 households in the village now are willing
to send their girls to school. The CAI-Gilgit
manager, Saidullah Baig, is hopeful that these
local schools will generate the next generation of local teachers, thus ensuring the
school’s future.
MAJAWEER LEADS THE
WAY
T
he next stop on our expedition
was to the CAI Middle School in
Majaweer. This school was built
from the ground up by men from the 60
households in the village, as are all CAIconstructed schools. Today, they own it with
pride.
This school had a small fee of 350 rupees
(US $3.50) per month. For some of the reluctant parents, the fee initially was waived
to encourage them to send their children to
class. Over time the situation has changed.
With children spending productive and
happy hours in school, even
these financially hard-pressed
parents are now willing to
keep the children in school
without the subsidy.
This past summer, staff received training in Gilgit from
qualified trainers associated
with Aga Khan Education
Services. Ayesha Bibi, one
of the teachers, felt it made a
huge difference in her teaching
style.
“I am basically a math and
science teacher who also has
to teach social studies and English,” she explained. “It’s with the latter that I feel uncomfortable. I went for a ten-day training in
Gilgit organized by CAI. There were 61 other teachers and I got a chance to meet new
people.”
“I learned new methodologies for listening, speaking skills, and activity-based
learning,” she went on to say. “It was all new.
Before, I found the duration of the lessons
too long and hard to fill. There was always
spare time left, but now I finish on time.
Earlier, I did most of the talking myself, but
now I give the students a chance to practice
speaking.”
It is not just the teachers who are happy
with the way things have progressed. Juldush
Khan, chairman of the school committee,
spoke emotionally: “We wish CAI success.
Thank you for thinking about our future. We
had no school system before. Our students
take interest in studies now. We thank first
Allah and then CAI for changing our lives
and caring for our well-being.”
The students are thriving. Nowadays, girls
out-number and out-perform boys at the
middle school. But one did not need statistics
to see how the school was doing: the glowing faces of the girls and boys tell the whole
story. It was clear to anyone who looked that
the community was completely invested in
the education of their children and they were
doing everything in their power to further
improve the quality of education in the village. Apparently, they had already bought
land and were planning an expansion for the
school. Communities like this should be an
example to us all. If only everyone cared this
much about their children’s future, the world
would be a better place. n
9
The views expressed in this article are exclusively those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of
Central Asia Institute.
Haniya Tirmizi has
more than 20 years
of experience as an
educator, involved in
ESL instruction, English
language testing, and
material development.
She has undertaken
freelance consultancies
with the U.N. Development Programme, and
national and international nongovernmental
organizations.
JOURNEY OF HOPE | 43