It is about 9 o’clock in the morning. Some over a dozen children are standing outside the gate of a school in a village of Muzaffargarh district. The parents have sent them to school to get an education, but they are standing at the gate as it is still closed.
The students say it is a routine. They reach school in the morning daily and wait at the entrance until ‘Chacha Sharaf Deen’ (peon) arrives there and opens the school gate. They put their bags in their classrooms and wait for the teacher.
Meanwhile, a group of students takes up jharoos (besoms) and clean the school thoroughly. Every child studying in the school gets a chance to perform this important duty in rotation. And then arrives the teacher, the one and only, sometimes at half past nine and sometime at 10. Sometimes, he may not come for some reasons, and on that day, the 80 students studying in the school may have to go home even without opening their books and notebooks.
This is not excerpts from any story but the transcription and description of footage, shown by “Nya Pakistan with Talat Hussain” programme on Geo News television channel recently.
A reporter for the channel visited various schools in three districts of southern Punjab — Bhakkar, Layyah and Muzaffargarh — randomly, and presented a true picture of the state of schools in his report.
Footage of one school shows an uncovered nullah carrying sewage passing through middle of the school. The school has no boundary wall and heaps of solid-waste are lying around. The school teacher, students and their parents tell the reporter that over 60% of students are suffering from skin allergy, whooping cough, diphtheria and other diseases due to the nullah. However, despite making various complaints in writing to the authorities concerned, no action has been taken so far, says the schoolteacher in-charge.
In another school, heaps of garbage and dung are found near the main entrance of the school as well as the boundary wall.
In almost all schools visited, either there was no furniture at all, or it was in such a dilapidated condition that it could not be used by students.
In another primary school, when the reporter reached to meet the school children as well as the teacher, small girl students were cleaning the rooms with besoms. The teacher said there was no peon in that school at all. And she had only two options; either she herself clean the school daily or get the task done by her students, as she can’t make them sit in dirty rooms.
The education authorities may have a satisfactory answer to her question as to who should clean the school daily: the teacher or the little girl students.
In another one-teacher girls’ primary school in a village of Bhakkar district, young students were found washing clothes in the school, while the teacher was away. There was nothing to hide from the camera that the teacher was getting all her family laundry done by her little girl students.
No matter the Punjab chief minister or the education authorities making big claims about making education development and literacy promotion a top priority, the footage speaks volumes for the real situation in the province. As the programme host made it clear that the schools were visited randomly, almost all schools would present the same picture if the authorities visit them one by one.
The sector has always been neglected by successive governments, and the incumbent one is no exception. Various newspaper reports, published during the past two, three weeks, revealed that the PML-N provincial government in Punjab has diverted all development funds of education and health sectors to the Orange Line Train project in Lahore for its timely completion.
On the other hand, the educational institutions are suffering badly. The Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) took a household survey in April last year to look into state of school affairs and identify the out-of-school children in parts of southern Punjab, the same region where the private TV channel visited schools. The survey was conducted in eight union councils each in Bahawalpur, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalnagar.
The results showed that more than 43,319 children aged five to 10, out of the 104,000 children surveyed, were out of school. Nasreen Sheikh, RSPN education campaign manager, said in the report that there was an acute shortage of facilities at schools. She said that 32% of the children surveyed in Bahawalnagar and 34% of those children in Dera Ghazi Khan were out of school, 48% in Rajanpur and 56% in Bahawalpur.
The Annual Status of Education Report, released in December last year, revealed that 30% of the children aged six to 16 in southern Punjab districts were out-of-school. The percentage was 31 for DG Khan, 32 for Rajanpur and 35 for Rahim Yar Khan.
Safyan Jabbar, programme manager at Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi, alleges that there is no political will to bring about a positive change in the education sector at district level. The allocation of Annual Development Program (ADP) funds to 11 districts in southern Punjab had decreased from 23.3% to 14% during the past decade, he tells Cutting Edge. He says that the student-to-teacher ratio in south Punjab is 45:1, whereas the average ratio for the province is 40:1.
The Department for International Development also made public its findings on the Punjab Schools Reform Roadmap, approved in 2010. The report said that by January 2013, there were more than 1.5 million new children enrolled in schools and 81,000 teachers had been recruited. The report stressed the need for funds to “reach south Punjab”, being the most neglected region.
The report said that the lowest percentage of functioning facilities in schools was in DG Khan (77%) and Rajanpur (75%). The lowest enrolment of five to nine-year olds in the province was reported in Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, DG Khan and Rajanpur - 60% - the lowest.
Ali Ahmed, a research fellow at the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (ISAPS), believes that neglect, lack of access, poverty and meagre resources are some of the reasons responsible for the pitiable state of education in south Punjab. Talking to Cutting Edge, he says: “If education can’t offer a solution to survival in poverty stricken areas, why would parents be attracted to it?”
The profiles of Multan and Rajanpur districts, presented by the ISAPS, showed a lack of facilities in schools. In Multan, where 41% of children aged five to 16 were out of school, the profile indicated that 87 schools were without drinking water facility, 126 schools had no toilets, 178 had no boundary walls and 517 of them did not have electricity.
The ISAPS data showed that indicators were worse for Rajanpur. With 54% of the children out of school, 35 schools were without a building and children sat in the open. As many as 300 schools did not have drinking water, 258 did not have toilets, 276 did not have boundary walls and 963 schools were without electricity.
South Punjab is one of the most poverty-stricken region of the country. Salman Hyder, district project officer, National Rural Support Programme (NRSP), says that poverty and unemployment were some of the reasons why parents were reluctant to send their children to school. Many children in this region contribute to the household income, he said, adding that parents want to know the returns from education before they send their children to school. They will need some incentives to be mentally prepared for sending their children to schools. He says that without a sufficient number of teachers, toilets, boundary walls and electricity at schools, the situation could not improve.
The students say it is a routine. They reach school in the morning daily and wait at the entrance until ‘Chacha Sharaf Deen’ (peon) arrives there and opens the school gate. They put their bags in their classrooms and wait for the teacher.
Meanwhile, a group of students takes up jharoos (besoms) and clean the school thoroughly. Every child studying in the school gets a chance to perform this important duty in rotation. And then arrives the teacher, the one and only, sometimes at half past nine and sometime at 10. Sometimes, he may not come for some reasons, and on that day, the 80 students studying in the school may have to go home even without opening their books and notebooks.
This is not excerpts from any story but the transcription and description of footage, shown by “Nya Pakistan with Talat Hussain” programme on Geo News television channel recently.
A reporter for the channel visited various schools in three districts of southern Punjab — Bhakkar, Layyah and Muzaffargarh — randomly, and presented a true picture of the state of schools in his report.
Footage of one school shows an uncovered nullah carrying sewage passing through middle of the school. The school has no boundary wall and heaps of solid-waste are lying around. The school teacher, students and their parents tell the reporter that over 60% of students are suffering from skin allergy, whooping cough, diphtheria and other diseases due to the nullah. However, despite making various complaints in writing to the authorities concerned, no action has been taken so far, says the schoolteacher in-charge.
In another school, heaps of garbage and dung are found near the main entrance of the school as well as the boundary wall.
In almost all schools visited, either there was no furniture at all, or it was in such a dilapidated condition that it could not be used by students.
In another primary school, when the reporter reached to meet the school children as well as the teacher, small girl students were cleaning the rooms with besoms. The teacher said there was no peon in that school at all. And she had only two options; either she herself clean the school daily or get the task done by her students, as she can’t make them sit in dirty rooms.
The education authorities may have a satisfactory answer to her question as to who should clean the school daily: the teacher or the little girl students.
In another one-teacher girls’ primary school in a village of Bhakkar district, young students were found washing clothes in the school, while the teacher was away. There was nothing to hide from the camera that the teacher was getting all her family laundry done by her little girl students.
No matter the Punjab chief minister or the education authorities making big claims about making education development and literacy promotion a top priority, the footage speaks volumes for the real situation in the province. As the programme host made it clear that the schools were visited randomly, almost all schools would present the same picture if the authorities visit them one by one.
The sector has always been neglected by successive governments, and the incumbent one is no exception. Various newspaper reports, published during the past two, three weeks, revealed that the PML-N provincial government in Punjab has diverted all development funds of education and health sectors to the Orange Line Train project in Lahore for its timely completion.
On the other hand, the educational institutions are suffering badly. The Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) took a household survey in April last year to look into state of school affairs and identify the out-of-school children in parts of southern Punjab, the same region where the private TV channel visited schools. The survey was conducted in eight union councils each in Bahawalpur, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalnagar.
The results showed that more than 43,319 children aged five to 10, out of the 104,000 children surveyed, were out of school. Nasreen Sheikh, RSPN education campaign manager, said in the report that there was an acute shortage of facilities at schools. She said that 32% of the children surveyed in Bahawalnagar and 34% of those children in Dera Ghazi Khan were out of school, 48% in Rajanpur and 56% in Bahawalpur.
The Annual Status of Education Report, released in December last year, revealed that 30% of the children aged six to 16 in southern Punjab districts were out-of-school. The percentage was 31 for DG Khan, 32 for Rajanpur and 35 for Rahim Yar Khan.
Safyan Jabbar, programme manager at Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi, alleges that there is no political will to bring about a positive change in the education sector at district level. The allocation of Annual Development Program (ADP) funds to 11 districts in southern Punjab had decreased from 23.3% to 14% during the past decade, he tells Cutting Edge. He says that the student-to-teacher ratio in south Punjab is 45:1, whereas the average ratio for the province is 40:1.
The Department for International Development also made public its findings on the Punjab Schools Reform Roadmap, approved in 2010. The report said that by January 2013, there were more than 1.5 million new children enrolled in schools and 81,000 teachers had been recruited. The report stressed the need for funds to “reach south Punjab”, being the most neglected region.
The report said that the lowest percentage of functioning facilities in schools was in DG Khan (77%) and Rajanpur (75%). The lowest enrolment of five to nine-year olds in the province was reported in Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, DG Khan and Rajanpur - 60% - the lowest.
Ali Ahmed, a research fellow at the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (ISAPS), believes that neglect, lack of access, poverty and meagre resources are some of the reasons responsible for the pitiable state of education in south Punjab. Talking to Cutting Edge, he says: “If education can’t offer a solution to survival in poverty stricken areas, why would parents be attracted to it?”
The profiles of Multan and Rajanpur districts, presented by the ISAPS, showed a lack of facilities in schools. In Multan, where 41% of children aged five to 16 were out of school, the profile indicated that 87 schools were without drinking water facility, 126 schools had no toilets, 178 had no boundary walls and 517 of them did not have electricity.
The ISAPS data showed that indicators were worse for Rajanpur. With 54% of the children out of school, 35 schools were without a building and children sat in the open. As many as 300 schools did not have drinking water, 258 did not have toilets, 276 did not have boundary walls and 963 schools were without electricity.
South Punjab is one of the most poverty-stricken region of the country. Salman Hyder, district project officer, National Rural Support Programme (NRSP), says that poverty and unemployment were some of the reasons why parents were reluctant to send their children to school. Many children in this region contribute to the household income, he said, adding that parents want to know the returns from education before they send their children to school. They will need some incentives to be mentally prepared for sending their children to schools. He says that without a sufficient number of teachers, toilets, boundary walls and electricity at schools, the situation could not improve.
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