Thousands of schoolchildren attend classes outdoors

Thousands of school students in remote districts of Punjab are forced to study under the open sky in cold weather.

The schools in various districts lack adequate buildings. Most of them have two or three rooms, while a large number of students attend classes while sitting in grounds.

Low attendance in classes is reported in such schools as parents avoid sending their kids outside due to fog and cold weather in the province. In addition to the cold weather, such students are exposed to fog and air pollution.

An official of the planning department said while speaking to The Express Tribune that it was estimated that there was a shortage of around 9,000 classrooms in the 50,000 schools across the province.

"Usually, one classroom is required for 40 students. There are thousands of students who are forced to study under the open sky,” the official said.

However, Punjab School Education Secretary Ghulam Fareed claimed that there were only 100 schools in Punjab where students were getting education outdoors.

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"It is in my knowledge that there are schools in Punjab where students are getting education under the open sky, but there are only 100 such schools. However, there is a need to solve this problem and projects are being implemented to construct new rooms,” he said.

“We have constructed around 7,000 rooms in Punjab’s schools during the past four years and we are still engaged in building more rooms and providing other missing facilities for the students within our financial resources,” he added.

Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) secretary general Rana Liaqat Ali said, "The issue of lack of facilities and buildings exists in Punjab, but I salute the teachers who remain committed to their duty."

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2021.