City gets no new govt school in 5 years

Four govts have come and gone during the period

LAHORE:

No government school has been constructed in Lahore during the past five years, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Four governments have ruled the province during the period.

According to sources in the education sector, around 900 schools in the city have been shut down during the past three decades, while it is estimated that thousands of children are out school because of lack of affordable educational opportunities.

Lahore is the second biggest city of the country whose population had speedily increased in recent decades. However, opening new public schools has not been the priority of the past several governments.

As per the record of the Punjab School Education Department, no plan to construct a school in Lahore has been launched by the government since 2018.

The sources claimed that the annual budget of the education department was also curtailed by the previous government despite its election promises regarding the promotion of education.

“It was announced during former chief minister Usman Buzdar’s rule that that 100 new schools would be built in Lahore, but the construction work was not started at any site,” a senior official of the Punjab School Education Department told The Express Tribune.

A plan to set up two mobile schools also did not materialise.

The official disclosed that there were around 2,000 schools in the provincial capital in 1990 but their number had now declined to 1,122.

“It is beyond our understanding what was the planning of governments as instead of building of more schools they closed down the existing ones in the past. Now the situation is that we have no government school for almost half of the lower middle class and poor people of the city and as a result of this thousands of children are out of school,” he added.

He said the situation was contrary to then official policies regarding increasing the literacy rate. The other districts might also be facing similar conditions.

“In the past we started projects to bring out of school children to schools and advertisement campaigns were also launched for the purpose but the ground reality is that we are facing a shortage of government schools even in a major city like Lahore,” he added.

The official said the main cause of lack of new schools might be an increase in the cost of land and building material.

He pointed out that dozens of new housing societies had been constructed in Lahore during the past couple of decades but building government schools was not a part of their plans.

It was the responsibility of the government to bind the housing societies to include land for government schools, he added.

Meanwhile, increasing fees of private of schools have resulted in a large number of students dropping out and seeking admission to government schools. However, even the existing government schools are facing lack of teachers, classrooms and infrastructure.

“We need around 1,000 new schools in view of the increase in the population and demand, but at least 300 of them are direly needed at the earliest,” said Punjab Teachers Union secretary general Rana Liaqat Ali.

He also stressed the need for recruitment of teachers and expansion of the infrastructure of the existing schools, including the construction of new classrooms.

“The situation also warrants an increase in the budget of the school education department this year. Otherwise, thousands of children’s future would be at risk,” he added.

The teachers’ union leader said the government could also begin double shifts in the schools in the city so that more children could be educated.

He said government should consult teachers’ representatives to prepare a strategy to admit the maximum number of students to the schools this year.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2023.a