Dear Sir,
A good education, they say, is the greatest gift you can give yourself or anyone else. And education is more than learning to write and read; it also means to prepare yourself for the future. Education helps us to face the challenges of life. It is with the education alone that people can progress in all directions.
Hence the need for devising an adult education programme.
The consequences of illiteracy are many and harmful. As well as affecting illiterate individuals themselves in their daily lives and often jeopardising their future, this scourge has a significant effect on society, both socially and economically.
It’s difficult for illiterate people to find jobs and often poverty and stress lead them to take their own lives.
In Third World countries, many adults are not educated because when they were children their parents didn’t know the importance of schooling.
Good schooling is essential for every society and individual. A number of governments have launched schemes for adult education.
There are night schools for people who work during the day.
Regular camps and campaigns are being run to spread the message of adult education in many countries.
The role by Qatar’s Reach Out To Asia (Rota) deserves appreciation in this context.
The Rota Adult English Literacy Programme, first developed in 2009, aims to teach English to low-skilled migrant workers in Qatar.
The programme trains volunteers, mainly students, to become literacy trainers, who go on to deliver English literacy course to low-skilled migrant workers using Rota’s custom-designed English literacy curriculum.
The course is designed to help workers improve their English language skills as a means of enhancing their ability to achieve personal goals and improve life opportunities.
Zainab Khatooon, PO Box 60094, Doha
Put a stop to honour killings
Dear Sir,
Hundreds of Pakistanis, most of them women and girls, are murdered every year by their own family members for damaging the so-called family’s honour. Most of the times their only fault would be choosing their life partners against the consent of others in their families.
Although a group of Pakistani clerics has issued a religious ruling against honour killings, these incidents seem to be on the rise. Last month, a teenager, named Ambreen, was drugged and burnt alive for helping her friend to marry against the wishes of her parents.
A few days after that, a girl called Zeenat Bibi,16, was burnt alive by her mother for marrying a man of her own choice. This was followed by the murder of a couple in Lahore for marrying without their family’s consent. Mohamed Ashraf killed his daughter Saba and her husband Karamat Ali a day after the couple returned to Lahore’s Kahna area to smooth over rocky relations with the family, who disapproved of the marriage, according to police.
And the other day, a pregnant woman became the latest victim of the honour-killing.
Muqaddas Tawfeeq was eight months pregnant with her second child and just 22 years old when she was allegedly dragged away from a maternity checkup by her mother. According to Khalid Tawfeeq, the woman’s husband, she was taken from the clinic to her maternal home.
It was there that the pregnant woman became the victim of an honour killing, beaten and her throat ultimately slit by her brother, according to reports.
I appeal to the Pakistani government to stand firm and protect its people from these crimes against humanity. Stringent measures have to be taken by authorities. Exemplary punishments must be awarded to the culprits.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed Pakistan will eradicate this “evil” practice after watching a film based on the story of a rare survivor of an attempted honour killing. But it is sad to note that no fresh measures have been taken and legislations tabled so far.
M Khalid Kamal, (Address supplied)
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