Any resident of Islamabad must be familiar with or must have at least witnessed the story of Master Ayub – the man who teaches underprivileged children in a park. The park I myself have crossed multiple times on my way to school is associated with him and his school. Over this course, we talked a lot about how conflict impacts education, but there is an inherent conflict present within each society which we tend to overlook – poverty.
Master Ayub’s case is a depiction of how eager children are to learn and progress if they are given access to resources and opportunities. We considered cases where children were deprived of schools due to conflict zones, but despite being conflict-free how many children in areas right next to us do not go to school? While the story of Master Ayub is inspiring, in the video you may note that he was at the rescue scene at the Marriott blast. At that point I could not help but wonder, when so many children’s future and schooling depend on one person and their dedication to teach rather than on an education system, losing that one person would mean losing an entire school.