Education in doldrums

According to a Unicef report, Sindh has approximately 40 per cent of its primary-school age children out of school

While driving through the province of Sindh, be it in the urban centre of Karachi or heading towards the rural areas, it is not an uncommon sight to find children of primary-school age roaming the streets during school hours. Though Article 25-A of the Constitution requires 100 per cent of children aged five to 16 to be in school, the ground reality is starkly different. According to a recent Unicef report, Sindh has approximately 40 per cent of its primary-school age children out of school. This is a horrendous statistic for a province that is often regarded as Pakistan’s epicentre of industry, a hub for economic development and a cauldron for vast scientific and social progress. However, if the province’s future generations cannot be equipped with educational tools to drive growth and advancement in the future, there will be a pool of wasted talent and development potential for the country.

Though private organisations continue to contribute resources to help alleviate the education crisis, the provincial government has greater influence over the state of education. Considering the poor state of facilities in a significant proportion of government-run schools, like lack of clean drinking water and toilets, absence of boundary walls in some cases, broken furniture and inadequate number of classrooms, the Sindh government needs to get its act together. In some cases, it has been reported that the 2010-11 floods caused considerable damage to the infrastructure of schools. But half a decade is ample time to rebuild. The education emergency is slipping out of control as unregulated and subpar private schools continue to be established and existing government schools become even more dilapidated and ignored. The Sindh government must act now. Drastic action is the only way to mitigate the education crisis which has already negatively impacted the futures of many children who have attempted to go through its system.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th,  2015.

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