City District Government Karachi’s (CDGK) year old plan to merge schools sharing one building has been accumulating dust and senior office holders of the province are unaware whether such a decision was ever taken, Pakistan Today learnt.
The afro-mentioned decision was decreed on September 10, 2011 by the then administrator Mohammad Hussain Syed. Under the plan, academic activities of 85 primary and secondary schools, being run by the city district government were to be merged and given under the jurisdiction of a single headmistress or the headmaster. The sources told Pakistan Today that all the schools located inside the same campuses were to be merged into one school while a single officer was to be tasked to run the school. The move would wrap up at least 85 percent of the schools which were presently being run in afternoon and evening shifts.
In the first phase, the decision would be implemented in Lyari Town while the remaining towns would be incorporated in the plan gradually, sources added. The existence of school campuses in city conducting afternoon and evening shifts with separate head masters/mistresses with administrative and financial powers is not helping the education ministry to put its house in order. The CDGK’s initiatives are in compliance with the technical papers recently prepared by the provincial government, which recommended that “the administrative and financial powers would be delegated to the principal of the school and thus unified it would help improve the standard of education and would check the unwanted flow of public funds.” Moreover, the sources said that majority of schools being run by the city government cry out for basic facilities like drinking water, power, toilets, furniture, bookshop, canteen and playgrounds.
Most of the 3,752 primary, secondary and lower secondary schools being run by the city government are in extremely poor conditions despite the fact that millions of rupees are allocated in the annual budget under the head of their maintenance.
When Pakistan Today probed further, it was revealed that majority of schools were in shabby conditions as authorities were unbothered to improve the conditions of the schools. Similarly, students of Government Sabzi Mandi Girls Primary School have to cover an additional distance of eight kilometres to reach Government Girls Secondary School, University Campus, in order to attend their daily classes. Thousands of poor students residing near Askari Park have to travel long distances just because those at the helm of affairs are corrupt. The same fate is shared by students of Government Ojha Primary Girls School, which is being run in the university campus school, around a kilometer away from its original site.
The condition of Government Sirajul Uloom Boys Primary School and Government Baghdadi Primary Boys School is not different as both the schools are being run in the university campus school building in the evening shift. In absence of their own buildings, both school administrations have curtailed the timings of classes which now end at 1210 hours instead of 1330 hours.
A glaring example of the city government education department`s negligence is the state of affairs at Government Boys Primary School, Haji Ramazan Gabol, at Safoora Goth. The school lacks drinking water for students. There is no sweeper to ensure cleanliness, no windowpanes to protect students from extreme weather conditions, while the condition of doors, tables and chairs is pathetic. The recently constructed building of Government Boys Lower Secondary School, Safoora Goth, presented a deserted look with all doors, windows and furniture broken.There is no government school for girls in Pehalwan Goth which has a population of more than a hundred thousand people. As a result, girls residing in the locality have to attend classes in a building where two boys schools — Government Boys Primary School, N-Area, and Government Boys Primary School, Pehalwan Gothare already functioning in two shifts.
When approached, teachers told that they were running the schools on a self-help basis as there was neither electricity nor water available for students. There was no sweeper to keep the school clean, they said, regretting that students were asked to sweep their rooms before attending classes. When contacted; (KMC) Director Education Afaq Mirza told Pakistan Today that he had no information about the decision of the administrator under which 85 percent schools were to be wrapped up. He concluded that “I will give you proper reply after I get the information from the office”.
