The broken windows, doors and low and weak boundary walls of a government girl primary school located in the centre of the federal capital tells a story of indifferent attitude of the authorities concerned.
The lack of basic facilities in the school at Farash Town proved that the incumbent government’s claims of bringing revolutionary changes in education sector was nothing but mere a travesty of reality.
Stinking heaps of garbage and loads of wastage accumulated around the school not only produced negative vibes for the passersby, but it made life difficult for students as well as teachers.
According to the details gathered from the school, it was constructed in 1996 and presently, 474 students were studying there.
The school consists of nine teachers of which three are daily wagers; however it had no security guard for night shift, but a person living in the neighborhood had been providing his services voluntarily for long.
Sources told Pakistan Today that it was a primary school, but secondary classes were being taught in the school because there was no secondary level school in the whole Farash Town, an area of huge population, where there are only two government primary schools.
Sources expressed that there was dearth of all basic facilities in the school such as furniture, drinking water facilities, lavatories, windows, doors and grass cutting machines.
“They are facing great problems owing to the low and broken boundary wall of the school, because it is not only disturbing the school privacy, but boys often climb the wall and leave the premises during school timings,” they added.
They said that all sewerage pipes had been broken. They explained that it resulted in shortage of water to be used in the school lawns.
However, they said that despite missing of all these basic facilities, the school made a history by giving 100 per cent result in fifth board exam, as all 45 students cleared their exam with good positions.
Talking to this scribe, people of the locality demanded that the school should not only formally be upgraded to the secondary level but to High school level because most of the girls left their education half way due to non-availability of high school in the locality.
A 50-year-old daily-wager Kamran Shahid said that most of the people of the area were poor and could not afford to send their children to school in remote areas; hence they left their education halfway.
He said that her daughter was quite talented and had great desire to pursue higher education, but she could not do so because he could not have sufficient resources to admit her in school far away from their residence.
Another resident of the area Shahid Abbasi said that there were hundreds of people who wanted to educate their daughters but they could not do so because of non-availability of high school in close proximity. He said that Pakistani culture did not allow girls to travel to schools which were not nearby.
When contacted the principal of the school, she said that they were doing their best to provide good education to the students.
The principal said that she left no stone unturned to make the school a role model for other schools and the current 100 per cent result of fifth class speaks volume about it.
However, when asked about the pathetic condition of the school, she said that a lot of work had been done to renovate the classrooms and soon, the remaining work would be done.
The principal said that the officials of CADD ministry visited the school and assured that soon, funds would be released for the school.
However, a staffer said that all the little work that could be seen was due to principal’s efforts in managing donors, as the government did not release fund since long.
She said that one donor provided Rs 20,000 for renovation of the school, while another had provided furniture for the school.
A senior official in Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) said that although, the ministry promised to repair and renovate the school, but at present it seemed next to impossible.
He said that it was quite unfortunate that the ministry failed to utilise the funds earmarked for the repair and maintenance of the schools.
The official admitted that since the start of Panama Paper scandal and Dawn Leak, CADD minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and Maryam Nawaz could not give proper time to reform the education sector as the government had promised.
“Maiza Hameed has been appointed as parliamentary secretary for CADD to help out the ministry in resolving the education issue, but she also focused her energies on Panamagate and Dawn leaks issues instead of giving attention to education matter,” the official said.
Due to the fear that the funds might lapse, an amount of Rs290 million was released by the government and adjusted in daily wage employees’ salaries recently.
