- There are a total of 28,178 govt schools in KP with 17,649 (63 per cent) boys schools only 10,529 (37 per cent) girls schools.
- There are 80,069 (65 per cent) male teachers in government schools, and 43,311 (35 per cent) female teachers.
- 141 schools shut down during the last year despite the education emergency in the province
Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA) on Friday deplored the persistent gender disparities in public education service delivery in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
While quoting the Annual Schools Census Report 2014-15 of KP Elementary and Secondary Education (E&SE) department, the Centre said that 63 per cent of the schools are for boys, while 37 per cent are for girls.
It said despite serious problems for women’s literacy rate in the province, there are a total of 28,178 government schools in KP with 17,649 (63 per cent) boys schools only 10,529 (37 per cent) girls schools.
Similarly, there are 80,069 (65 per cent) male teachers in government schools while the figure of female teachers stands at 43,311 (35 per cent), and this reflects a huge gender disparity.
The Education Management Information System (EMIS) Cell of KP E&SE department has released its 24th Annual Statistics Report of Government schools for the year 2014-15.
According to the report, there are 28,178 government schools in KP, which is lower than 28,319 schools reported in ASC 2013-14 indicating a shutdown of 141 schools over the year.
Out of the total government schools, 22,717 (80 per cent) are primary schools while the remaining are middle, secondary and higher secondary schools, the report added.
It emphasised upon paying attention to the situation of teacher and classroom availability at the primary level as almost 46 per cent of government primary schools are managed with two or less teachers.
Similarly, 54 per cent of government primary schools have two or less than two rooms and this situation is stagnant since the last many years, it said, adding that in earlier analysis, CGPA observed that normally students of 2 to 3 grades sat together with multiple blackboards in a single classroom.
The report indicates that out of the total functional government schools, 17.2 per cent are without a boundary wall, 31.7 per cent are without water supply, 39.4 per cent are without electricity, and 15 per cent are without toilet facilities.
The situation has not improved compared to previous year’s ASC report.
Overall enrollment in government schools was 4.17 million in 2014-15 which is slightly higher than 4.16 million in 2013-14. Out of the enrolled children, 57 per cent are boys and 43 per cent are girls.
Children enrolled in government schools are 68 per cent of the total and the ratio is declining, it said.
The total number of sanctioned posts for teachers in government schools is 138,033 while presently the strength of working teachers is 123,380 which shows that around 14,653 (11 per cent) positions are still lying vacant. The average Teacher-Student ratio at primary level stands at 1 teacher for 42 students while at secondary school level it is 1 for 23.
As per CGPA analysis, huge investment is needed to provide missing facilities to schools, additional classrooms, construction of new schools especially girls’ schools, induction of new teachera to these schools while the KP government is yet to initiate the Tamee-e-School project.
CGPA programme manager Malik Masood stressed that the only increase in the education budget will not improve the state of education in KP, rather the education budgeting should be transparent and should be allocated on actual needs, keeping into consideration the geographical and gender disparities.
The education budgets should be proactively disclosed so citizens can monitor and participate in the education budget planning and implementation stages, he said adding that the ASC report mechanism needs to be improved as the reporting period of the data is October 2014, and has taken more than a year for its release.
He said the delay in the release may have many direct consequences on the sector, and needs to be dealt with for effective and efficient planning.