On the eve of Holy month of Ramadhan, Minister of Education Naeem Akhtar today urged the students and teachers to use this month for reviving the good spirit of old times by laying extra stress on moral education, purity, hardwork and helpful nature.The Minister was speaking at a cultural function organized by Government Girls Higher Secondary School Kothibagh. Students performed the traditional wanwun and rouf before a large gathering. While recounting the olden days when people used to celebrate the start of Ramadhan, Akhtar said, “our girls used to sing rouf during Ramadhan. People used to wait for a year for this month so that they will shower its blessings by doing good work.”The Minister said that, the spirit needs to be revived. “Nowadays we are doing the opposite, we make Ramadhan as an excuse to come late to office or not to work. But let us revive the old spirit of this holy month and work more, help the needy and contribute towards the development of sound body and society,” he said. “Read what Lalla Ded and Sheikhul Alam had said and use the month to adopt the sayings in practical life.”The Minister urged the teachers to treat Ramadhan as a special month wherein stress will be on moral education, right principles, delivery of justice, importance of cleanliness and help for humanity. “This is what Islam is all about,” he said. “We have social evils like female foeticide and bribery. Let us use Ramadhan as opportunity to strengthen our beliefs and fight these evils in the light of The Holy Quran.”
He said that Islam brought in revolution of reforms and everybody especially students need to become part of this revolution. He asked the teachers to contribute more towards imparting education to children during Ramadhan as the deeds will be rewarded multiple times by Allah.The Minister reiterated his pledge to turn Kothibagh School into a model school. After inaugurating the Home Science Laboratory, Akhtar visited various stalls wherein students had made many artifacts out of waste. He asked the teachers to identify certain goods whose business opportunity could be exploited.The Minister was told that the school has 11 faculty members for teaching English and this year effort will be made to get 100 percent English fluency among all students.In the cultural event, traditional rouf, prayer, wanwun and qawwali was presented by the students after being trained by Ms Anjali Koul, wife of renowned Kashmiri Sufi singer Dhananjay Koul. Ms Anjali said that the students were trained in two days for the programme after being facilitated by the Director Education and other officials.Director School Education Kashmir Dr Shah Faesal, Principal Kothibagh GHSS and other officers were also present on the occasion.