Poor condition of government schools in Karachi, enrollment has also decreased

Karachi: Government schools in Karachi are in a bad state, while enrollment has also decreased.

Enrollment of students in the government schools of Karachi is decreasing and a comparative review of the previous and recent school census has revealed that 65 thousand children have dropped out from the schools, while after the non-viable schools were closed and removed from the records, Karachi I have 1914 public schools out of which 1749 are active and the total enrollment of public schools in all the districts of Karachi is 3 lakh 95 thousand 522 and 657 out of 1914 public schools are drinking water, 542 electricity, 380 toilets, 1588 laboratory, 1710 libraries and 1528 libraries and 1528. 21 school shelters are roofed or roofless.

This has been revealed in the comparative assessment of the school census conducted by the Department of School Education in the year 2021/22 and the previous school census of 2019, however this school census report is still secret and has not been released by the Department of School Education. .

It should be remembered that according to the previous school census 2019, the previous enrollment of government schools in Karachi was reported as 4 lakh 59, which is also present in the report issued by the Reform Support Unit, a subsidiary of the Department of School Education.

Also read: Dropout of children in schools increased due to inflation

In addition, according to the recent secret report of the school census of 2021/22 received from sources close to the Minister of Education, Sindh, out of 395,522 total enrollment in government schools in Karachi, there are 1,86,938 boys and 2,8584 girls.

According to the report, in the government educational institutions of Karachi, the ratio of students/classrooms is 33, students/teacher ratio is 27, student/school ratio is 207 and teacher/school ratio is 8, that is, on an average there are 33 students in a classroom and there is one teacher to teach 27 students. On an average, there are 207 students in each school and 8 teachers in each school and a total of 14855 teachers are teaching in government schools of Karachi.

The worst school/teacher ratio is in district Kemari where on average there are 5 teachers in each school while this ratio of teachers is 14 on average in schools of southern district, thus the ratio of teacher/student ratio in district Kemari and western district is 36 while in Karachi East the teacher/student ratio is 21 which seems to be the best

According to this report, the highest number of closed schools are in Malir district with a number of 90, while the most active 525 schools are also in the same district. Of the public educational institutions in Malir, 302 have drinking water, 313 have electricity, 420 have toilets, 43 have science labs, while 204 have science labs. There are libraries

Also read: In Pakistan, 2.3 million children are deprived of going to school, Education Minister

When “Express” inquired about the situation of public schools in Karachi from the Secretary of School Education Department, Ghulam Akbar Laghari, he admitted the situation. The remaining 16 percent is spent on employee salaries and grants for various projects.

In the same limited budget, we provide facilities to the schools which are reported to be in worst condition, we do the work there first, we distribute the funds equally among the schools of Sindh. We are aware of the situation of the schools, but there are difficulties due to lack of budget.

On the other hand, according to the school census report, out of 338 public schools operating in Karachi Central, 285 have drinking water, 300 have electricity, 313 have toilets, 82 have science labs and 60 have libraries. Of the 201 active government schools in Kemari, 115 have drinking water, 155 have electricity, 169 have toilets, 23 have labs and 17 have libraries.

Out of 219 government schools in Korangi, 178 have drinking water, 195 have electricity, 206 have toilets, 69 have science labs and 35 have libraries. There are libraries, while 100 of the 165 functional government schools in the West have drinking water, 125 have electricity, 140 have toilets, 16 have science labs and 7 have libraries.

It should be noted that the highest number of 84686 students study in government schools in central district while the least number of 37348 students go to government schools in western district. 74 thousand in Korangi, 66983 in Malir, 46530 in South, 39 thousand in Kemari and 46 thousand in East are studying in government schools.

Students’ opinion about lack of facilities in government schools

When trying to know the views of the students regarding the lack of facilities in government schools in Karachi, Ali Hassan, a fifth grade student of Government Boys Ibrahim Alibhai School Federal B Area, said that the playground for playing in his school There is no construction debris and garbage in the playground. Where should we play?

Kamran, a student of the same class, said that we are sitting on a broken disc, today we are sitting here and giving exams. They are not, and if they are, they are broken, while the washroom is so dirty that it cannot be used.”

School Principal’s Opinion on Dropout

In addition, when “Express” inquired from the head teacher of a public school in Malir about the records of student dropouts in schools, he said on the condition of anonymity that we only have the records of those students who dropped out of school. There are those who require “TC” transfer certificate from us, but there are many students who leave the school during their studies and do not even ask for TC, there is no record of such students.

To a question, President Mualim said that this year many students left school who came to Karachi from the cities of Sindh due to the flood situation, but now their parents say that they cannot stay here anymore due to the inflation of Karachi. So going back with my families.