PHOTO: AFP
Despite significant financial allocations for education in Lodhran, schools continue to lack basic facilities and the quality of schooling has not improved, a report by the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS) issued on the bi-annual constituency ranking on education indicators says.
The report says, “The School Education Department, school administrations, teachers, parents and political representatives are equally responsible for the state of education in the district. All five provincial seats in Lodhran belong to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).”
According to the report, Pirzada Jahangir Sultan’s PP-208 stand first with a score of 67.37 per cent. The report says that the constituency has improved its ranking from the fourth position in the previous ranking. Malik Sajjad Hussain Joiya’s PP-209 stands second ad PP-207 is ranked third.
Ahmed Khan Baloch’s PP-211 is last on quality-of-education indicators with a score of 63.14 per cent. According to the rankings card, students in all five constituencies performed poorly in matriculation exams.
The report says the results of students of grades five and eight were also unsatisfactory.
The report notes that student attendance as well as teacher attendance in all the constituencies was good.Jahangir’s PP-208 ranked first for basic amenities, with a score of 99.09 per cent. The report said PP-210 ranked second and PP-211 is third. PP-209 was at the bottom of the list with a score of 97.83 per cent, which the report notes is not a bad score.
The report says while provision of some basic facilities like drinking water, toilets and boundary walls is encouraging, electricity is not available at a number of schools.
It says 11 per of cent schools in PP-209 do not have electricity. Talking to The Express Tribune, Abdullah Alam, a research fellow at I-SAPS, said ranking provincial constituencies helped draw comparisons.
Alam said, “The aim of this exercise is to present actionable evidence and inform local political leadership and communities about the state of education in their constituencies and compare it with other constituencies in the district.”
He said it also provided a tool to citizens to raise their voice for improved quality of education and basic facilities in schools in their areas. The ranking card is available on the institute’s website.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 9th, 2016.
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