HYDERABAD: The seminar entitled as “Education Status of Tharparkar and Election 2018” was arranged by the Thar Education Alliance (TEA) with the collaboration of Rural Development Association (RDA) over the prevalent status of education in Thar. Meanwhile, the manifestos of candidates contesting upcoming general elections was also discussed in the session. People from different sections of the society participated and shared their opinions in this regard. Coordinator TEA, Sunder Kothari while conducting session shared the overall status of Tharparkar. He said that there are different issues Thar is currently facing such as lack of quality education, gender parity, and mismanagement in governance. He further said that total number of girls’ school are less compared to boys schools, this has caused lower number of girls’ enrolment in schools in Tharparkar. Government should address this issue in order to promote girls education. Thar ranks lowest in education compared to other districts of Sindh ,he said ,adding that the infrastructure of schools is also inappropriate. He further said that due to low teacher to students ratio, students of Thar are unable to get modern scientific education which is necessary in this era of modernization. Similarly, Thar also lacks scientific labs in many schools. He emphasized community to ask the candidates coming for votes to work for education and the contesting candidates must be asked about their manifesto for Thar and its development. He suggested them to raise slogan “Achi Taleem Do Vote Lo” for upcoming elections. Mr Ilyas Rind complained that the parliamentarians do not visit the constituency after winning elections to resolve the basic issues of the community. Published in Daily Times, June 29th 2018.