Daily Times

Asad, 15 years old boy from a government school, is busy in his project. He aims to exhibit in incoming Laar festival. He seems very much excited, “I love to do things like this. Before it was just circle of friends who liked my interest now I am happy that everyone would see my work.” To observe a child from this region busy in science related activities seems miracle because no one envisioned this cultural transformation a few years back in a region dominated by feudal and illiterate mindset.

Child like Asad drew their inspiration from the children of Thar, which is even more backward area then his region. Thar Science festival was held in the month of February this year which hits not only national but international media as well and appreciated from science loving sector.

Hardly anyone heard positive news coming from these regions. Tharparkar remains in news due to children malnutrition or drought hit news, so as Thatta. Child like Asad never get chance to showcase his talent so the negative sector filled this arena.

But, now Asad and company are ready to replace them. Team Thar Education Alliance (TEA) is the force behind the collaboration of Laar Education Campaign, Campagianistan, Child Rise, Shell Pakistan, SMEDA and Education Department Govt of Sindh. They are in continuous struggle to ignite the spark of science in children to replace the negativity generally due to backwardness of culture.

This growing trend has attracted many progressive figures of Sindh like Saif Samejo, Asghar Khoso and such are busy to promote science through art. The canavas of this festival is larger due to encouragement from Wasatullah Khan, Zaiuddin Yousafzai, Syed Sardar Ali Shah, Nawab Taimur Talpur and many Sceince oriented organizations.

The two-day festival which is going to be held on 14-15 December is one more step to concertize the foundation of science culture built by the inception of Thar scinec festival among folks. Chief Executive Officer, TEA, Partab Shivani shared that it’s an era of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), so TEA focuses on Maths and Science and they organise Science Festival in those districts where students have poor grading in SAT (Standardised Achievement Test) and at present In Laar region specially in Thatta and Sujawal there is poor score .

“The objective is that government of Sindh should equip the science labs, provide subject specialist, public and private both sector promote inquiry based science education and government of Sindh must announce Sindh Science Day.” he said.

DC Thatta, Muhammad Nawaz Soho said “I invited children, parents, teachers and local communities to come and see the talent of our children at Laar Science Festival, organized by Thar Education Alliance. Here we will show you, our children are best at all levels if they are given opportunities like Laar Science Festival”.

“I will request all the media persons and school system administration to participate in such wonderful program to create a healthy environment for our children. By doing so we may be able to meet the standards set for quality education in our region,” he added.

Social Innovation Strategist, Prem Sagar shared that Laar Science Festival, on one hand, is an opportunity to explore the hidden talent of Badin Sujawal and Thatto pertaining to STEM on the other hand it serves the purpose of action based advocacy to influence government of Sindh to foster science learning in all public sector schools.

“I envision education as an instrument for social transformation and evolution; explicitly focusing on rights of access and quality of education for children of Sindh.” he said.

Farhad Ahmed Jarral, CEO Campaignistan, the reason behind organising such festivals is to create the interest in students to learn from others and be creative in designing their models.

Young children show a natural interest in STEAM subjects, and research shows that we can harness that curiosity. Math and Science are the subjects which lead towards development of the country and we need to emphasise more on these subjects, and in the later phase take these activities to villages where children need it the most.