‘198 govt schools in Dadu exist only on paper’

CMO says 450 public schools out of 2,229 in the district remained completely non-functional

HYDERABAD:

Around one fifth of the government schools in Dadu district remained completely non-functional in the year 2020 while 218 government school teachers remained absent from their duties. The chief monitoring officer (CMO) of the education department, Ghulam Fatima Ghallu, told the media in Dadu district on Friday that out of some 2,229 government schools in the district, 450 remained completely closed.

"Among the closed schools, 198 schools seem to exist only in the government record. There is no trace of these schools," she observed. Another 99 schools remained temporarily shut during the year.

She lamented that the dropout ratio in public schools has worryingly increased and that it has also been noticed that parents are discouraging the education of their daughters for various reasons. According to her, 829 government teachers were found partially absent.

"Some 669 staff of the education department were found to be missing from their duties altogether." She apprised that an inquiry committee has been formed to ascertain the causes behind absentee employees.

Ghallu acknowledged the state of missing facilities in government schools as well and pointed out that 521 schools in Dadu are without boundary walls. She added that there are no toilets in 375 schools, no electricity in 755 schools, and 372 schools are without any furniture. "Another hundreds of schools have reported shortage of furniture."

She claimed that the monitoring and evaluation wing has led to certain improvement in functioning of the schools as the wing's teams visit the schools on a daily basis. She claimed to have visited 250 schools herself in the last three months.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2021.