LARKANA: A government-run middle school in Mubarak Jeho village of Ratodero Taluka was converted into a vegetable field and remained non-functional for last eight.
Due to the lack of resources, hundreds of male and female students had to either abandon education completely after primary or travel to other regions to acquire education including Mirpur Bhutto, Dakhan, Madeji, Ratodero and Naundero. The school was found in complete ruins earlier this week as villagers filed complaints against the unavailability of educational facilities in their area.
The school consists of five classrooms that cost millions of rupees. The landlord has grown vegetables around the school. Tariq Jeho and others said that the male and female students of about 10 nearby villages had been forced to go to other schools to attain further education. He said his father Ghulam Akbar Jeho gave the plot for the school despite his fertile agricultural land so that kids could be educated.
He said that Deh Mubarak Jeho was previously included in the Shikarpur district, and the school was constructed at that time. When the school was ready to function, Deh Mubarak Jeho was returned to the Larkana district and the school was never made functional, he added, blaming the authorities in education department who failed to take action despite repeated written requests.
It was informed that the school was constructed by the Shikarpur administration and it should have been operated by them. He said that the dispute resulted in the loss of children’s education and placed their future at stake. The children have to travel between 12 to 15 kilometres daily on rickshaws to attend schools, Jeho told media.
An NGO worker Junaid Dahar said that 60 out of 80 middle schools in the Larkana district were completely non-operational due to the negligence of school and district management.
He reasoned that neither the Sanctioned New Establishments (SNEs) of these schools were approved nor any teacher was posted.
