HYDERABAD: On July 16,2018, candidates which are going to contest general election from the constituencies of district Mirpurkhas, Sindh have to prepare not only for their corner meetings, gatherings, door-to-door work and rallies, but they also have to address the previous performance issues, like the access to education in their areas along with sharing upcoming plans with voters. It was discussed in community session on education status of Mirpurkhas and election 2018, which was held at many villages of district Mirpurkhas including Doulat Leghari, Kathri, Makhan Samoo, Shah Mehmood Khaskheli and old Mirpurkhas in which people from different walks of life participated, the event was organized by Thar education alliance and ARTS Foundation. Shehzado Malik shared the overall status of education of Mirpurkhas, while sharing the data he said that Mirpurkhas’s education is going down and down with the time, they have a lot of issues to address like gender parity, properly budgeted governance, and quality education. He said a total number of schools in Mirpurkhas is 1998 and out of which only 398 are girl’s schools whereas remaining 1600 are for boys, there should be an equal number of schools for both boys and girls, there shouldn’t be much difference as girls education suffers a lot. He shared total number of Primary school is 1808, no. of middle school is 100, high school 74 and no. of higher secondary school is just 16. He further said Mirpurkhas ranked 9th out of 29 districts in education ranking of Sindh in education index, whereas regarding infrastructure Mirpurkhas stands 21st. There are numbers of facilities missing like toilets, water, electricity, boundary wall etc. He further said that literacy ratio of girls, as well as boys, is not much satisfactory, the government need to work on that, drop out rate increases when we move up the higher classes, we also need to work on the promotion of science and maths as subjects. The community should feel the responsibility on its part and raise the voice to resolve such issues. He further emphasized upon the community to ask the candidates coming for votes to work for education and must ask what they have done previously and what they have done for education in their manifesto. He told them to use the slogan “Achi Taleem do, Vote lo” for coming election. Malik further asked the community to share their issues and demands. Mr. Ibrahim said that no one has ever visited and inquired them about their issues and it is their time to question the candidates about their performance and their policies about education specifically. Shehzado Malik thanked all for their participation in the event and for sharing their issues and demands regarding education.