Nearly fifth of govt schools in K-P lack drinking water

Vast majority of schools in province now have boundary walls, toilets

PESHAWAR: Nearly a fifth of all government schools in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) lack facilities for clean drinking water, while a quarter of all schools across the province are still without power.

According to the K-P Independent Monitoring Unit (K-P-IMU) report for September, around six per cent of the schools in the province did not have any facilities for toilets, while six per cent lack boundary walls to protect students studying at government schools.

The IMU data showed that in September 2014, facilities for clean drinking water were available at 69 per cent of the 27,524 government schools for boys and girls in the province while power was available at 61 per cent of schools.

However, three years later – a period overseen by the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in the province - 13 per cent more schools were provided with water facilities. There was a corresponding 14 per cent improvement for power facilities at schools.

Similarly, an additional 15 per cent of schools saw boundary walls erected. The IMU report noted that three years ago around 79 per cent of schools had boundary walls and that this figure had risen to an impressive 94 per cent.



Moreover, the report stated that in September 2014, around 82 per cent of schools had toilet facilities for students. But now, around 94 per cent of government schools had toilets.

Meanwhile, K-P Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Atif Khan stated on social media that since 2013, the government had spent around Rs30 billion to shore up missing facilities at schools across the province

He added that there are over 25,000 Parent Teacher Councils (PTCs) currently working across the province. These committees, he said, have been empowered with funds to focus on ensuring provision of basic facilities at schools including construction of boundary walls, drinking water, latrines, solar power cells to provide electricity apart from provision of furniture worth Rs4 billion.

Zunash Abbasi, media advisor for K-P Education Sector Programme (KESP), said that a drastic improvement had been brought in providing facilities to government schools in the province.

“If we compare this data to that from four years ago, there is a significant change in the quality of infrastructure, fall in teachers’ absenteeism, and the overall increased enrollment in government schools,” she said.



Most schools covered

The K-P Elementary and Secondary Education Department says that the government has provided basic facilities at 24,336 government schools in all districts of the province, or at around 88.42 per cent of schools.

The department’s data further states that around 7,682 additional classrooms have been built at different schools, while group latrines were built at 11,589 schools.

Similarly, 8,597 boundary walls were constructed at schools and 9,157 schools provided water facilities. Around 5,069 schools got solar power facilities and 6,752 schools were connected to the grid.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2017.