10pc teaching post in girl schools lying vacant across country

ISLAMABAD – One in every 10 sanctioned teaching posts in monitored government girls high schools is lying vacant nationwide, where one teacher has to teach, on an average, 33 girls. Among the monitored schools, 55 percent did not have a library and 43 percent had no playgrounds.
The government needs to ensure the availability of staff and facilities for the education of female students in the country, says FAFEN Education Institution Monitor released here Monday. FAFEN Governance Monitors visited 61 government girls’ high schools in 46 districts across the country in February 2011.
As many as 36 schools were visited in 25 districts of Punjab, 12 in 11 districts of Sindh, 11 in eight districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and two in as many districts of Balochistan. As many as 1,493 teaching posts were sanctioned in the monitored schools, of which 1,347 were occupied, leaving 10 percent of the sanctioned posts vacant.
As for the non-teaching posts, on average, 11 percent of the sanctioned posts were lying vacant across the country. The highest percentage of vacant teaching (29 percent) and the non-teaching (18 percent) posts was observed in the monitored schools of Sindh. The highest teacher-student ratio was also observed in Sindh, where one teacher was responsible to teach 45 students.
The report says that little attention is paid to the physical activities of girls in government girls high schools, as 43 percent of the monitored schools did not have playgrounds and 36 percent lacked a physical training instructor. Thirty four of the monitored 61 schools (55 percent) did not have a library for the high school girl students.
According to FAFEN observation of 50 government boys’ high schools in January 2011, 62 percent of schools had a library. Such gender disparity in similar institutions reflects the gender insensitivity on the part of the policymakers. Like playgrounds and libraries, many schools were lacking even the basic amenities like arrangements for clean drinking water.
Forty three percent of the monitored schools did not have a security guard, despite constant threats to schools in the country in general and girls’ schools in particular, especially in regions under conflict, like KP, FATA and Balochistan.