The authorities concerned of Punjab have failed to address shortage of textbooks of Punjab Textbook Board (PTB) as the text books of various subjects are still unavailable to students of private and government schools despite start of new academic session. The new academic year was started from April 1, but many textbooks of Punjab Textbook Board are still not available in the market, causing immense problems for the students of government and private schools. Parents have urged the concerned authorities to ensure availability of textbooks in the market, so that children could start studies without wasting time.
According to a survey conducted in this connection, many textbooks of Punjab Textbook Board including mathematics books of Class 3, 7 and 8, science book of Class 7, and books of chemistry, physics and biology of Class 10 are short in the market.
Parents and students are trying their best to find these unavailable books as teachers are forcing the students to bring books at the earliest. Altaf, a father of Class 10 student said his son is studying in a government school and he searched the books of physics, biology and chemistry in almost all markets of Rawalpindi, but these books are not available.
He said his son is extremely worried, as his teachers have ordered all the students to bring books as soon as possible. He urged the concerned authorities to ensure the availability of textbooks in the market and also requested the school teachers to understand the issue of unavailability of books and did not force the children. Another father complained that the new academic year has started but textbooks are still disappered from the book stores. He said he has been searching for the mathematics book of Class 8 for the last one week, but all in vain, as the book is still not available anywhere.
Booksellers in Urdu Bazaar and Saddar said parents’ complaints about the non-availability of books is correct, adding that they were informed in March that the books would be provided to them in a few days but they are still waiting for their arrival. A spokesperson of Punjab Textbook Board said only the textbooks of Class 5 were not available in the market few days back but now their availability in the market is being ensured. He also claimed that the textbooks of Class 3, 7, 8 and 10 are available in the market, as these books were released in time.
FJWU holds workshop on empowering women: Women Research Resource Centre, Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU), Rawalpindi, in collaboration with Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Department, Government of Punjab, organized a workshop at the Resource Centre Murree (RCM).
The workshop, “Empowering Women: Legislation under Human Rights” was the first activity at the RCM, after its formal inauguration by the Chief Minister Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, on December 30 last year. FJWU is linked with the RCM since the project was launched. The day long programme started with the recitation of the Holy Quran. Barrister Qasim Ali Chohan and Dr. Farah Qadir, In-charge, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Fatima Jinnah Women University, were the resource persons for the workshop while Dr. Samina Amin Qadir, Vice Chancellor, Fatima Jinnah Women University was the Chief Guest.
Barrister Chohan conducted an awareness-raising session by translating the legislation about the rights of women that may be exercised for their empowerment at workplace. He started by defining legislation. He linked the human rights today with our religion and said that protection has been granted to the women by the Almighty Allah. He explained all the rights with reference to religion as he gave the example of Khutba at Hajat-ul-Wida. All the rights that CEDAW has ratified now were granted by Islam, he said adding, all the policy bills related to human rights explain the same. While talking about the harassment of women he said it is the issue that the complainants also hesitate to discuss.
Barrister Chohan said our socio-cultural patterns of interaction encourage silence on these issues and other similar issues like inheritance, right to vote, marriage, divorce etc. Session two was an interactive workshop conducted by Dr. Farah Qadir on ‘Possible Interventions For Women Empowerment”. She gave real life examples to illustrate the phenomena. Certificates were distributed among participants and the Chief Guest also conferred souvenirs on the Resource Persons as a token of appreciation.
Assistant Commissioner, Murree, Omar Jahangir, was also present on the occasion.
