What we do to keep Girls in School

I had to leave my school at the age of 13 because my teacher humiliated me, in Punjab province still 52% girls are out of school and dropout is highest in the grade 5 (42.8%) and one of the reasons is that they have to face inequality, teacher beat them and humiliate them

When we talk about the girls of Rural Pakistan, we should know that their parents are mostly illiterate, they are against girls’ education, they are poor and they have no awareness on how to treat to the girls, they discuss all kind of matters in front of them, they rebuke them many times a day by saying if you will not learn house hold you will not get respect from your in-laws

Mothers are being treated ill by males of the family so they treat in a same way their children , they beat them , they shout at them, they use them for family politics , like mother will say to the child keep an eye at your Aunt or grandmother and tell me what they will say about me ,

From very young age children learn such things and they lose interest in their studies and when they come to school they have to see the same atmosphere teacher will love the child of a rich family, they will beat and humiliate other children, and they will insult them in front of other children if their fee is late or they make a little mistake

Girls think if they will become married like their moms they will be able to have control on kitchen, they will be able to buy new cloths, they will be able to attend weddings and other ceremonies in the family and that they will be a boss of house in absence of the husband so they like to get married as soon as possible.

They never get a chance to go for an outing with friends and family, there are many students whom I know who do not have TV at their homes they cannot even dream to have an access to the social media.

In this scenario if some girls get a chance to go to school then it is a duty of the teacher to provide them all, to give a required freedom, to give them an atmosphere where they can learn with freedom, where they can have care, they can be introduced to the gestures like care, support, team work, mutual understanding, to take a stand for the right, to go against wrong, to love to learn new things, to explore their own ideas, to have encouragement on small successes, to laugh to play , to make friends, and talk a lot and even to speak loud, we teachers should give them an opportunity to let them hear the sound of their own voices, we should let them love themselves, to recognize themselves, to admire themselves, to know their own worth and we should let them celebrate their achievements .

But in our schools it is not like that, when I was a school girl I was just 10 years old a very talkative girl and my teacher was used to tell other girls in my presence that those girls who speak loud like this girl they do not have a good character, girls should speak politely and should remain silent most of them time, she never liked me and I never stopped speaking loud and talking so much, but her remarks were enough to make me sad every day

Our teachers are also from our society so they think and act like common people, but we should understand that teachers are not common people they are the one who change the world.

At Zephaniah Free Education we never rebuke our students but try to make education interesting for them so they keep smiling and love to learn.