PAKISTAN / GIRL’S EDUCATION

Pakistan's apocalyptic flood of 2010 could lead to a sea change in attitudes towards sending girls to school. Thousands of parents in rural areas traditionally declined to send their daughters to school. But the flood waters forced them out of their villages into areas where UNICEF has set up temporary learning centres. According to Karen Allen, UNICEF's deputy director in Pakistan, coming into contact with education for the first time may result in a genuine mind shift in both girls and their parents. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:04:12
• Production Date: 21 February 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: EDUCATION; EDUCATIONAL POLICY; EDUCATIONAL PLANNING; EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES; EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
• Geographic Subject: PAKISTAN
• MAMS Id: U110221a

Description

STORY: PAKISTAN / GIRLS EDUCATION
TRT: 4.08
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SINDHI / PUNJABI

DATELINE: 22 JANUARY 2011, MULLAWALA VILLAGE, SOUTHERN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN / 15 JANUARY 2011, DADU DISTRICT, CENTRAL SINDH PROVINCE, PAKISTAN

Shotlist

15 JANUARY 2011, DADU DISTRICT, CENTRAL SINDH PROVINCE, PAKISTAN

1. Med shot, children playing in schoolyard
2. Wide shot, children playing in schoolyard
3. Close up, Noor opens closet doors
4. Pan right, blackboard
5. SOUNDBITE (Sindhi) Noor Khatoon, 11:
“I miss my school,”I really want it to be rebuilt so I can start studying again.”
6. Med shot, teacher in foreground with children
7. Close up, girls
8. Med shot, girls
9. SOUNDBITE (Sindhi) Noor Khatoon, 11:
“I want my school to be rebuilt so I can start going to school again, because I don’t enjoy the centre here.”
10. Med shot, children in schoolyard, and Noor talking to woman
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Karen Allen , Pakistan Deputy Representative, UNICEF:
“We saw a real birth of motivation in the little girls but also in the parents, who said, ‘oh well, maybe we should consider sending our girls to school, well because look how happy it made them and they were really learning useful things’. So we believe that when they take those children back home there will have been a mind shift, at least the start of a mind shift in sending girls to school.”
12. Med shot, girls walking under clothes line

22 JANUARY 2011, MULLAWALA VILLAGE, SOUTHERN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

13. SOUNDBITE (Punjabi) Aqsa Rehman, aged 9:
“This was my bathroom and now it’s broken. That used to be my bedroom. There was water all around. Our house and houses around it had fallen down. Whatever we touched would break and fall down. All the furniture had broken. And the water had taken away all my dolls and clothes.”
14. Med shot, woman hanging up laundry
15. SOUNDBITE (Punjabi) Haji Abdur Reahman, father of ten:
“I am educating them so that they have a bright future and a comfortable life. We will also be comfortable and when the girls get married, their in-laws will treat them with respect.”
16. Med shot, children studying
17. SOUNDBITE (Punjabi) Iqbal Bib, Aqsa’s aunt:
“We are educating our children to get rid of poverty. We hardly have enough to eat or feed the children. But we are still educating them so that they become better people.”
18. Med shot, children in outdoor classroom
19. SOUNDBITE (Punjabi) Mohammad Haseeb, age 5:
“Seven rooms of our school were demolished. I started to cry. And we got very upset to see what had happened to it.”
20. Med shot, school board
21. Close up, child studying
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Sigismund, Emergency coordinator, Punjab province, UNICEF:
“This brings hope for the community. The children will have a changed behavior and girls will want to go to school and actually when we get to the next phase is when we raise an actual structure here which is not a permanent structure but something better than this. There is development there: the school is getting better and better.”
23. Close up, motorcycle plaque
24. Close up, boy at motorcycle
25. Close up, boy repairing motorcycle
26. Med shot, boys moving bricks
27. Close up, bricks
28. Wide shot, man working on construction site

Storyline

Children play outside their old school building in Central Sindh province which was hit by the terrible flood of last summer.

Eleven year old Noor Khatoon, shows just how high the waters reached.
The building has been condemned as unsafe.

SOUNDBITE (Sindhi) Noor Khatoon, 11:
“I miss my school, I really want it to be rebuilt so I can start studying again.”

A temporary learning centre has been established in the grounds of the old school. But the level of teaching, aimed at younger children, has left Noor extremely dissatisfied.

SOUNDBITE (Sindhi) Noor Khatoon, 11:
“I want my school to be rebuilt so I can start going to school again, because I don’t enjoy the centre here.”

Noor’s criticism required courage, especially in a country where millions of girls are deprived of education. But the flood has provided an opportunity for change.

SOUNDBITE (English) Karen Allen, Pakistan Deputy Representative, UNICEF:
“We saw a real birth of motivation in the little girls but also in the parents, who said: ‘oh well, maybe we should consider sending our girls to school, well because look how happy it made them and they were really learning useful things’. So we believe that when they take those children back home there will have been a mind shift, at least the start of a mind shift in sending girls to school.”

The story of Aqsa Rehman who lives in Mulla Village in Southern Punjab is a prime example of changing attitudes.

SOUNDBITE (Punjabi) Aqsa Rehman, aged 9:
“This was my bathroom and now it’s broken. That used to be my bedroom. There was water all around. Our house and houses around it had fallen down. Whatever we touched would break and fall down. All the furniture had broken. And the water had taken away all my dolls and clothes. We will come to school, even if we have to struggle for it. We will study and become women soldiers. We will help our people by replacing everything they have lost in the floods.”

Aqsa’s relatives are determined that she will have a different future from other women in the family.

SOUNDBITE (Punjabi) Haji Abdur Reahman, Father of ten:
“I am educating them so that they have a bright future and a comfortable life. We will also be comfortable and when the girls get married, their in-laws will treat them with respect.”

SOUNDBITE (Punjabi) Iqbal Bib, Aqsa’s aunt:
“We are educating our children to get rid of poverty. We hardly have enough to eat or feed the children. But we are still educating them so that they become better people.”

The temporary school is certainly benefiting first grader Mohammad Haseeb.

SOUNDBITE (Punjabi) Mohammad Haseeb, age 5:
“Seven rooms of our school were demolished. I started to cry. And we got very upset to see what had happened to it.”

SOUNDBITE Jan Sigismund, Emergency coordinator, Punjab province, UNICEF:
“This brings hope for the community. The children will have a changed behaviour and girls will want to go to school and actually when we get to the next phase is when we raise an actual structure here which is not a permanent structure but something better than this. There is development there: the school is getting better and better.”

But the future of many children is being stolen because they are used as cheap motorcycle mechanics or brick makers. As Pakistan reconstructs after the floods, many poor parents will choose the brickyards instead of education, the essential building block for life.