Struggle of teaching the slum children
Islamabad-Tauheed Sohail, a professor at NUST Business School (NBS), started a mobile charity school named ‘Ilm’ in April 2016 with a basic idea to teach young children who do not have access to schools.
Ilm started off at a local ground near the slums, later generous residents of g-11 offered the balcony of their house. The School teaches six days a week from two to three hours. With 35 students on their list, Tauheed Sohail is aiming to bring change in the lives of these slum childrens.
It is interesting to know that Sohail uses American education curriculum for English, Maths, Geography, Science and Critical thinking while Pakistani education system for Urdu.
Tauheed Sohail said "We have recently started geography for kindergarten and science for class 1. Moreover, computer science is to be started soon”
A year has passed since Miss Sohail started her school. Students are now to be promoted into next class. She said” Few students will be promoted to class 2 next month. The main curriculum used for it will federal government one along with supplements of private curriculum.”
Child labor is one of key challenges in Pakistani Society. Most of the children in Ilm also work on daily basis.
Saif, a student, sells boiled eggs at night and makes himself some money with it.
One of the factors children come at Ilm is that they want to avoid government schools. The kids are subjected to numerous insults and abuses in government school.
“In order to escape such environment they leave the government schools and come at our place for learning,’’ Miss Sohail said.
Tauheed Sohail wants not only provides an environment for learning but also teaches them how to control their emotions. She said "These kids are aggressive because their parents used to beat them up. They want to take out their frustration.”
But over the passage of time, they have managed to control their anger.
"I will try to find someone who can teach them breathing exercises. Things that are supposed to help in anger management,” Miss Sohail said.
According to Tauheed Sohail, inculcating a structural behavior was something which took the longest time. In the start, the kids only wanted to study the books of their choice. They had no proper patterns of learning and would show no interest in studying different subjects. But now they have adjusted into this new environment and gained a good pace of learning.
Tauheed Sohail’s aim is to teach the kids to the level of matriculation.
“This is something I have taken responsibility for and will not step back until my mission is complete,” She said.
