Evening schools to educate transwomen

In a bid to give equal opportunities to the transgender community, the education department of South Punjab has announced a pilot project which will enable transgender persons to attend school in the evening for a couple of hours.

'Taskforce has been formulated to coordinate with NGOs working for third gender community'

In this regard, the secretary of education, Ehtisham Anwar, discussed the progress and contribution of the Transgender community during a meeting of the education department officials at his office.

He was of the view that gender studies should be added in Pakistan Studies syllabuses from classes four to eight for which all stakeholders of the Single National Curriculum (SNC) will be approached.

Ehtisham also created a task force comprising DPI (elementary) Tahira Perveen, Deputy Secretary (secondary) Khawaja Mazarul Haq, CEO of District Education Authority Shamshar Khan, SO Hina Chaudhary and Ayesha, Pakistan's first transgender person who received an MPhil degree.

“The task force has been formulated to coordinate with NGOs working for third gender community, suggest syllabi, location of schools and timings as well as check on the availability of Waseela and Health cards,” the secretary said.

He regretted that transgender persons withdraw from schools owing to societal bias and other related hardships.

The meeting was attended by Addl Secretary (Admin) Atta ul-Haq, and DHA CEO Shamsher Khan among others.