Abstract:

This paper sets out to capture current challenges and opportunities of education for children in Cholistan desert; it reveals different mode of education, available facilities and challenges that education providers and would be users of educational facilities meet with. Cholistan being desert area, has an ‘aggressive’ climatic and exceptional geographical conditions which make its access difficult for outsiders making life hard for Cholistani people. Life in Cholistan revolves around livestock rearing as its main source of subsistence and hence key factor for seasonal migration to manage water and fodder. To study such population, qualitative approach was adopted, and data was collected through protracted qualitative interviews and participants observation. The study reveals that Greater Cholistan lacks the formal educational facilities leaving the people out of options to send their children for attending school. Their learning remains limited to informally gained basic knowledge of life skills like animal husbandry and managing life from their close family members. However, in the case of Lesser Cholistan, somehow there is availability of formal educational facilities, which is generating an emerging trend of getting modern education. In this part of Cholistan, pastoralist parents are relatively aware about the need and importance of education. The study concludes that availability of and access to educational facilities is one of the determinantal factors for motivating nomadic and semi nomadic parents in Cholistan for educating their children. In addition, policy makers and stakeholders should consider specific geographical conditions and requirements while taking initiatives for education of nomadic children.

Keywords: