By nature Chitral is Heaven but some factors which incomplete Word Heaven
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Chitral is called Haven on the Earth. It’s divided into districts of lower and upper Chitral in the KPK province of Pakistan. Historians, anthropologists, authors and travelogue writers have described Chitral as the most romantic, captivating and enchanting place. Chitral is bordered in the east with Gilgit-Baltistan, southeast Swat, north and north-east by China and Afghanistan. Chitral is gifted with mysterious and steep mountains, green valleys, beautiful meadows and glaciers. It is divided into over 35 small valleys. The most beautiful and famous place of this area are Kalash valleys, Gram Chashma, Shishi Kho, Laspur, Booni, Madaklast, Ayun, Yarkhun , Tor Khow, Shandur and Boroghol. Chitral is also called the palace of fairies because of its high mountains. 4,000 feet and over 40 peaks have an altitude of 20,000 feet. The highest peak in this range of Hindu Kush is Terichmair 25,263 feet. Chitralii people speak chatrali language which is called Khowar. The general population is mainly of the Khowar people, who speak the Khowar, which is also spoken in parts of Gilgit, Yasin, Swat and also Dir. Chitral has long history related to British ruler, Mather and many more. The district has a population of about 447362.
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Muslim architecture Shahi Mosque in Chitral is also famous. Spanning over beautiful, pure white marble, the mosque is a sight to behold and fall in love with. The Fort of Chitral is located nearby which is a memoir of the minor contingent of the British Army where they were besieged for thirty days. You can view the magnificent Trich Mir Mountain with the Chitral River flowing close to it. A view of the bazaars in Chitral winding to and fro and beyond with antiques, fabric, food and happy people is unforgettable.
This all are good factors if we discuss about education and other factors chitrali people facing many problem. Even though Chitral stands sixth among 25 districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and 47th out of 146 districts nationally, at least 37% of girls in the district are not going to school. To provide context to the ranks given by Alif Ailan District Education Rankings 2014 or the government, a closer look at the top districts’ performance indicators reflecting where the districts fall on the scale is in the end just a number which cannot always paint a balanced picture. A look at the top performing district according to Alif Ailan’s report, Malakand, reflects what being first or sixth really implies in terms of ground realities. In Malakand Division, at least 43% girls remain out of primary school, 81% out of middle school and a grand 95% out of high school. Looking at the sixth best district for education, data on the K-P Elementary and Secondary Education department’s (ESE) website shows Chitral has yet to progress in terms of educating girls and continues to underperform in the sector. In Chitral, for every 34 primary school students, there is one teacher 30% of primary schools have only one teacher. At least 69% of schools in Chitral remain without electricity and 40% without boundary walls. However, over 60% of schools have the privilege of water.
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According to data provided by Government and other Organizations, District Chitral is comparatively at higher position with regard to literacy rate, as compared to the rest of KPK. Improvement in literacy rate both among male and female population is mostly the direct result of private sector intervention in the education sector, from primary to graduation level. There are about 50 colleges working in various far-flung valleys of Chitral, where government would never establish college even for the coming hundred years. But private sector took the responsibility, and facilitated local community in the remote valleys of Laspure, Yarkhoon, Lotkuh, Torkhow and Mulkhow by establishing community based private schools and private colleges which are imparting education to local community in return for affordable fees. Besides private sector, Government of KPK is also trying its best to improve literacy rate and education in whole province as well as in Chitral. Within a span of two years campuses of two public sector Universities have been established in District Chitral, to promote higher education in the district. Literacy rate among female population is also increasing by leap and bound, and various segments among government departments and NGOs try to take credit of this situation and correlate the phenomenon to their sincere efforts in promoting education in District Chitral.
Beside all these there are still major problems faced by students in Chitral
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Continuous Secularization:
Education is the only tool used to prepare the new generation according to the culture , religion and social values; but although being an Islamic state, we are still unable to clarify our mind about the Islamic content in curriculum. This is increasing secularization in new generation in Chitral.
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Unavailability of facilities:
Proper facilities in the class room as well as at higher level are almost unavailable and learning aids are completely vanished. Beside the fact Chitral is mountainous area where is snowing is not new concept still school and students don’t have access to gas heaters.
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Transportation hurdle:
In Chitral transportation system is much disorganized, expensive, unavailable in equality in all areas of Chitral and very costly. It is affecting the students’ educational process very badly, as most of students belong to poor families and are unable to afford it.
Picture of Broghil valley students going to school through snow (pic by Abdul Nasir khan)
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Availability of professional teachers:
Professional teacher appointment has become a big problem due to increasing rate of corruption and political interference and is becoming very problematic day by day. Only AKDN is working in school system. The system of AKDN is good because it is looking for not only education (AKES) system but also health (AKHS) (AKU), water (WASIP), agriculture, sport (AKYSB),Aga khan Planning board.
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Punishment:
In almost all educational institutes Pakistan, no matter either these are religious madrissas, public or private, the punishment is considered as compulsory for teaching purposes. The punishment trend is more severe in public and madrissa sector.
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Language barrier:
Our educational curriculum is in Urdu at primary level and in English at higher levels. Our native language is khowar so this language barrier has caused a great disturbance to students while shifting form one level to another level. And this problem is worsening day by day in the present times, due to wrong educational policies of higher authorities.
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Large number of students:
Due to unavailability of schools in Chitral. The number of teaching institutes as compared to the students enrolling every year is highly insufficient. It results in large number of students in one class and at results affecting educational process and poor number of faculty.
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Rare Personal Grooming:
Lack of professionals and well educated faculty has definitely resulted in the poor grooming of students’ personality in chitral. Not a single education organization from Chitral is working on this issue.
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Availability of well-furnished and modern labs:-
Availability of well-furnished labs is very rare in Chitral. Mainly govt sectors don’t have sees.
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Financial stress:
Poverty has affected the whole Chitral badly. Majority of students belong to rural areas and poor families that are unable to bear the costly education and living hand to mouth.
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Co-education and Emotional problems:
In the educational setups where co-education is present, the emotional factors like romance, love, flirting etc. Has greatly affected the educational environment leading to destruction of moral and social values.
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Gender Discrimination and Regional Inequalities:
The adult female illiteracy rate in the country was twice as high as for males. The illiteracy rate was 23.3% for males and 46.9% for females. The number of educational institutions, the literacy rate among both males and females, the number of private educational institutes and the available educational facilities are not equally provided all over the country.
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Imposed study and Psychological problems:
It is almost a trend in Pakistan that students are not free to choose profession according to their interest and nature. They are advised and get imposed by their parent to be doctors, engineers etc at every cost. The main reason is no availability of experts to guide in this critical matter. It leads to serious psychological problems in students.
Khuda karay k meri Arz-e-Pak per utray
WO fasl-e-Gul Jissay Andesha-e-zawal na ho
(Allama Iqbal)
