District Media vows to go beyond
traditional coverage for education
25th January 2017
The District Media Sensitisation Workshop in Rahim Yar Khan was greeted by the gathered participants as a unique activity to strengthen the media’s role in bringing the focus on education. Fifth in a series of such workshops, the event was held in Rahim Yar Khan with the active participation of the district’s journalists, teachers, community members and education department officials.
The interactive and engaging conversation was dominated by the need for a more responsible attitude adopted by the media towards highlighting and educating on social issues, especially education. A role in which there is much scope for improvement, as admitted by Mr. Irfan Malik, District Correspondent for Dawn and President of the RYK Press Club.
A view of the workshop session.
“We (the media) need to go beyond the event-based coverage and look at issues in-depth. We must go beyond the reporting of hearsay and little evidence,” he said while addressing the participants.
“Not all media outlets in Rahim Yar Khan have education beats, but we shouldn’t let that stop us. Education of our children is a top priority and the media must play its part in ensuring that this priority is realized.”
Also present at the occasion were the Deputy Education Officers and Assistant Education Officers of Rahim Yar Khan district. They unanimously agreed that there needs to be better coordination between the media and the government departments.
GBHS Mud Mangla Khanpur
“The attitude of the media has changed in the past few years, and I think it is a positive change. This workshop is a step in the right direction. We need to build on this to play our roles in the school improvement process,” said Aziz Ur Rehman Qureshi, DEO (Rahim Yar Khan).
Asim Ali, Head Teacher at Government High School Mud Mangla gave a brief presentation on the transformation his school has undergone after the completion of a new academic block constructed by Humqadam-SCRP.
“The construction has finished but the work for us (the school staff) has just begun. We have to work hard with the children, and make sure that the education and experience is worth of such a beautiful building,” a beaming Asim Ali told the gathered participants.
Humqadam-SCRP has already constructed new classrooms, toilets and other missing facilities at 300 schools in KP and Punjab. In District Rahim Yar Khan, Humqadam has already transformed the educational experience of 30 schools – with the construction of classrooms and toilets – and work in another 70 schools is due to be completed by April.