Report: Riyan Malik
KURAGH: The annual celebration of World Environment Day, with this year themes “Beat Plastic Pollution” was celebrated at Aga Khan Higher Secondary School Kuragh, with the exemplary participation of teachers and students of Government High School Charun, Govt Girls Middle School Charun, Govt Girls Primary School Charun Govt Girls Primary School Kuragh and Queen’s Academy Kuragh.
A commendable number of community notables from Kuragh, and from various walks of life also attended the program. Mr. Shafiqullah, coordinator Aga Khan Rural Support Program graced the program with his presence as a Guest Speaker. Surayya Kausar and Mehrosh Alam students of Grade 12 carried out the responsibility of compering.
The program formally started with recitation of the Holy Quran by Mubashira Zahid student of Grade VIII, which was followed by Naat Sharif by Asifa Ikhlas a 10 grader of the host school.
Thereafter the Principal Ms. Sultana Burhanuddin was called upon the stage. She welcomed and thanked the guests for sparing a few moments from their hectic schedule for the noble purpose of celebration of the day. In her address she shed light on the objectives of the program. Sharing objectives of the programe she said that as teachers we need to bring in international perspective in our teaching and learning process and inculcate sense of global citizenship among leaders of future. As teachers we have huge responsibility on our shoulders to prepare our students to face global challenges, and environment is one of them. She said every day, and as long as we are alive, we need clean environment to take breath, but dedicating one day shows our grave concern about our environment. She mentioned a few serious issues of environment, alluding to killing of birds and destroying aquatic life by hunting, throwing waste into rivers and canals, and their bad effects on the environment. She also said that it is the need of the hour to do strategies to save the ecosystem and avoid those things which destroy it.
Having been called upon the stage, Haseen Alam Raza, student of grade 12, shared valuable information about the history, background of the day, our responsibilities towards nature and the consequences of unfriendly behavior of man towards endangered species. She said that people throw plastic bags into the rivers and seas, which the turtles swallow, taking the bags for jelly fish. This results in decrease of the green turtle population.
The Guest Speaker, Mr Shafiqullah was requested to address the audience on the theme of adverse effects of environmental pollution especially use of polythene bags on biodiversity. He stressed on the realization of our responsibility as teachers, students and any other professionals in order to keep the environment clean and green. He also shared useful information, through multimedia presentation, about the different animal and plant species of Pakistan, especially focusing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and more specifically Chitral. According to the speech, throwing garbage and industrial and kitchen waste into water, use of plastic bags, weak watch and ward system, hunting and deforestation are the root causes of environmental pollution. Environmental pollution results in rise in global temperature, low crop production, soil erosion, habitat degeneration and extinction of rare animals and plants which give beauty to nature etc.
Principal of the school presented souvenir to the guest speaker.
After the speech, there was a short question-answer session, where the speaker responded to questions posed by the audience.
Maha Nazir was called upon the stage, who delivered a short thank you speech to show her gratitude to the guest speaker, the teachers of the guest schools and all the other guests for their active participation.
Such programs as this are very important in creating awareness among the mass about their responsibilities regarding how to save the global community from danger and destruction. These programs give us the message that it is our moral duty to be kind to animals and fulfill our obligations in this regard.
The event ended with a kilometer walk with students, teachers and community notables to create awareness among masses. The overall program was managed by student’s counsellor, Samina Mehmood
It is pertinenet to mention here that the world has changed to a global village. Along with amenities of modern age, however, it also faces certain challenges and issues. Some of them are natural. However most of them are man-made. One of such grave issues as these is environmental pollution. In order to highlight the environmental issues and commemorate the importance of keeping a clean and healthy environment, this grand program was organized at Aga Khan Higher Secondary School Kuragh on World environment day “5th June” 2018.
