By Hammad Anwar
Like most of us, I used to spend
a lot of time cursing the current education system in Pakistan and believing
that I knew the best solutions to the country`s problems. But they were mere
ideas because there was no practical effort to implement them or contribute to
society in some way. But luckily of late I have developed interest in the work
of non profit organizations in the country especially in Lahore. Getting involved in running a non profit organization myself, it is pleasing to know that
there are numerous great initiatives (most of which are lead by youth) which
focus on social causes like education, poverty eradication, child labour etc.
The efforts have been more like solo flights but more recently there is an
increased tendency of collaborating and joining hands in supporting each other
which I believe is great since the magnitude of our problems is way beyond the
scope of one organization.
Education is one of the sectors
where we are lacking behind developing nations let aside the developed one. The
worsening conditions of our outdated educational system is not helping the
country`s cause to prosper either. There are a number of non profit organizations
which are currently focusing on the education problems of the country. The list includes small and large organizations working on different levels according to
their capacity and capability. We have well developed organization like The
Citizen Foundation, growing organizations like Rabtt and a number of
initiatives which are working at the smallest scale.
Rabtt is currently a Lahore based
youth initiative which attempts to connect with students at a personal level
and inculcating in them the desire to think. It was founded in 2011 and has
successfully conducted couple of big projects in this short span. The word
“Rabtt” literally translates in to the word “Connection”, where the concept is
to connect the students to teachers in a way that latter plays the role of
mentor for the former. We have observed in our lives that we usually had this
one specific teacher or person who played an important role in developing not
only our academics but also our personalities. Rabtt is a platform where
students can connect to the real world unlike the traditional norm which asks
them to connect to books and that too by rote learning.
Furthermore Rabtt believes in
promoting independent and analytic thinking through educational camps,
bringing together students from different classes of society in an environment
conducive to learning about new fields of knowledge and broadening the scope of
future possibilities. This connection is something we are lacking in the
country. At the moment we have three main educational systems running parallel
in our country and yet within these systems there are many differences. For
instance when we compare public schools with private ones, we always assume
that private ones are better when it comes to quality, but digging into private
schools segment only, one can notice a large discrepancy between the qualities
of education being provided by different private schools. So we can’t even
assure quality within one system, let alone across systems.
Rabtt conducted its pilot project
i.e. Summer Camp at a Govt. Public School for Boys in Lahore in the summer of
2011 followed up another two camps in summer of 2012. These camps were held at
a Government Pilot High School & the other one at Youhannabad. They had a
volunteer team of around 40 volunteers who came from diversified backgrounds.
There were people from Government College Lahore to Lahore School of Economics,
from Harvard to LUMS and this is another positive sign that all segments of the
society want to contribute in one way or another. The camp lasted for two weeks
where 40 students, mostly from ninth and tenth grade, took part in different
activities like Dramatics, Public Speaking and Art. Furthermore, they were
taught English, Mathematics and Computers as well.
These camps focused on teaching
those skills which are conveniently overlooked in most of the public schools.
There are hardly any public schools where Art and Computers are taught in their
true essence let aside activities like Dramatics. Subjects like Philosophy,
Critical Thinking & Public Speaking which were taught in our camp gave
children a forum to express themselves openly and encouraged them to ask
questions. The camps ended after three
weeks with a grand closing ceremony attended in numbers by the children, their
parents, and number of celebrities as well along with full media coverage by
notable channels like Hum Tv.
Other than the main three summer
camps, Rabtt has conduced few small projects like an essay writing
competition in collaboration with United Nations Academic Impact. It was held
in a Govt. Public School for Girls and over 400 students took part in it in October
2011. The essay competition was preceded by two workshops over a time of two
weeks which first focused on basic concepts of writing an essay and the
different types of essays. The response of girls was worth watching and the
essays were checked and evaluated by reputable teachers from LUMS and eventually
prizes were distributed among the three winners.
Similarly in December 2011, Rabtt
conducted one day workshop in the same girl’s school focusing this time on
three main subjects Algebra, Physics & Dramatics. Though one day was not
enough to carry out detailed activities yet the overall response from children
and school staff was really encouraging. The focus was not only what to learn
but how to learn as well. The attempt was to open new dimensions for them to
take their course in a more critical way and think and try to understand what
they are learning rather than simply memorizing it.
Rabtt had been lucky to get
support from a number of partner institutions like Akhuwat Microfinance, Punjab
Education Endorsement Fund & Seeds of Peace. The response relevant publics
i.e. school management, teachers, volunteers, parents and above all children
has been amazing. Rabtt is now currently
focusing on their next project which would be two parallel summer camps in the
two schools. Anyone who wants to be part of this can contact the at info@rabtt.org and visit them at www.rabtt.org
Something that started small has
today grown into something really big and success stories like these are living
proofs of the fact that people in this country and especially the often-blamed
and misunderstood youth has the capability, passion and willingness to bring
the change. It is high time that we should support and indulge over selves in
some kind of activity that can bring our country back on track to progress.
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