ACQUIRING education is one of the fundamental rights of every child and providing such assistance in this regard is a long-lasting virtue for the needy children. One good example in this connection is Lyari town where a dozen of street schools are providing education free of cost to hundreds of poor children on self-help basis. Most of the street schools are located in Baghdadi and Shahbeg Lane which were established by the social workers of the area in the early ’80s.

Children in these schools study from Class I to Matric while the classes are conducted in the evenings. The streets are closed for classes by tying a sheet along its breadth to stop the influx of traffic while classes proceed. In every street school, two to three classrooms are established in which 20-30 students study in every class. The age group varies from 4-12 years. A portion of the walls is painted with black paint to use it as a blackboard. Students Free Educational Centre in Lyari, is one of the oldest street school that has provided education for needy children since the past 17 years. Teachers in these schools are mostly women.

In addition to education, the management of these schools is also arranging social activities for the students from their own resources.

“Model Street School was established in 18 April  1985to educate poor children of the area especially those who could not afford the fees of even government schools, ch a meagre amount.

The interesting aspect of these schools is that the majority of the teachers of primary classes are themselves students of secondary classes. These students volunteer to help the younger children in their studies in these street schools. Most of the teachers have passed their matriculation examination in A grade which shows the standard of these schools even though they’re held on streets.

The social personalities of the area who run these street schools are keen to provide free education to the children of the area but are facing acute shortage of funds. They hope that some prominent NGOs will come forward and help these children in different ways.

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An innovative way of education....

LYARI
is the oldest area of Karachi. The people of Lyari are daily wage earners, mostly manual laborers, but few are employees of various Government Institutions. Since Pakistan Inception, Lyari has been a house of problems, such as education, unemployment, water & sewerage, electricity and so on.

Baghdadi is one of the important segments of Lyari. Before formation of ARM, it had been a place of drug pushers and the drug Mafia. They recruited youth and children of the area as sellers.

The place where ARM is situated had been a garbage dump. All over the people of Baghdadi used to dispose their garbage here.
Before 1985, there was an inverse pyramid of educational facilities. There was a high drop out rate in schools. Most teachers in government schools were untrained. Thus the schools imparted a very low standard of education. As children did not get benefit from schools and just used to waste their times. Parents often did not send their children to schools encouraging them to work. Private schools were preferred, but they were so expensive, that poor could not afford them.

In 1985, a few neighborhood youths began the program to stop youth and children from being involved with drug pushers and drug Mafia. Accordingly they formed ARM Child & Youth Welfare on April 18, 1985. They removed all drug sellers and Mafia from Baghdadi area. They cleared garbage dumps and set up an education center (street school) where they started to educate the children of the area. At the beginning they sewed discarded bags of flour together and used them in place of curtain. Children sat on the mats.