Publishing Coup for Pakistan Students
Publishing Coup for Pakistan Students
Trainee student journalists on IWPR's Pakistan youth project, Open Minds, received a major confidence boost when their very first story was published in a national newspaper, after just two months of training.
The article, compiled from students' reports on the failure of local authorities to address problems in the north-western city of Peshawar, was translated from Urdu and appeared in the English-language daily The News.
The 16-year-old trainees at Madrassa Taleemul Quran in Pakha Ghulam village, on the outskirts of the city, said seeing the story in print had encouraged them.
"We will continue highlighting more issues confronting our area and people," said student Hazrat Ali. "This really gave us confidence and we will write more and more in future."
Trainer Yousaf Ali, a staff reporter for The News, asked small groups of students to pick a local issue they wished to investigate. Among the issues chosen were sanitation, power shortages, and school facilities. Public services in Pakistan are often neglected.
Pakistani female students and their parents also expressed enthusiasm for efforts to encourage the former to voice their opinions on current affairs as part of Open Minds.
"This really gave us confidence and we will write more and more in future."
Hazrat Ali, student
One goal is to encourage students to talk about local and national current affairs issues - as a prelude to more formal journalism training - by developing analytical skills.
Rote learning is standard in Pakistani schools and girls, in particular, are discouraged from taking a position or speaking out.
Ayesha Taskeen, an Open Minds trainer in the rural district of Charsadda in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, NWFP, told IWPR that parents in the area were keen for their daughters to participate.
"One student's mother came to me and informed me that her daughter has very regularly been attending the training classes with keen interest. She also requested that her other daughter may also be allowed to attend," she said.
