The activists of Alif Ailaan accompanied by other social, welfare, literary and political organisations held a protest demonstration in front of Bhutto mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bux on Sunday against 55,000 ghost teachers.
They took out a rally from Garhi Khuda Bux to Naundero House where they staged a sit-in against ghost teachers and closed schools in Sindh province. They chanted slogans against the ghost teachers.
Alif Ailaan Regional Coordinator Junaid Dahar, Hussain Bux Narejo of Quomi Awami Jhamoori Party, Sindh Educational Society Chairman Liaquat Mirani, Sindh Literary Forum’s Aijaz Chandio, PPP-SB Larkana District President Ghulam Hyder Narejo, Mazdoor Ittehad’s Sahab Khan Shaikh, JSQM’s Hameed Soomro, PTI’s Naeem Bhutto and others took part in the protest and staged a sit-in.
Talking to media, they said as many as 6,164 schools in Sindh were closed out of which 581 are located in Larkana division. They said the education system had reached the verge of total destruction but the rulers were fast asleep. They said 6.02 million children of Sindh had been deprived of their basic right to quality education and 34 per cent children of Benazir Bhutto’s home district were out of education. They said the education officials had been informed of this worst situation but they had done nothing as yet which showed that they too were not loyal to discharging their legal and moral obligations.
They further said: “About 55,000 teachers are ghost out of 158,000 for which education officers should feel ashamed for their failure to bring them back to schools for discharging their moral duties for which they are monthly paid from the tax payer’s hard earned money.”
They said 26,201 schools in Sindh were without electricity and no drinking water facility was available in 23,622 schools of the province, adding that no washroom facility was available in 20,658 schools and 16,668 schools were running without boundary walls. They further said that Sindh’s landlords had occupied 1,540 schools for which they should be forced to vacate without loss of further time. They said these figures should be eye opener for the government and clearly indicate the working of the education system in the province. The protesters urged PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to take emergency steps to save the children of Sindh from becoming illiterate and personally supervise the imparting of quality education in the province.
