Learning exercises: Local schools without teachers

Boy’s and girl’s schools closed for 6 months after transfer of teachers.

WAHANDO:

All girls and boys schools in the area remain closed due to lack of teaching staff.

According to villagers in Wahando’s Sech Kaler area, four girls and boys schools have been closed for over six months due to the unavailability of teachers. “No one is willing to locate to this area and we have been trying to recruit teachers for months but to no use,” said girls school administrator Maheen Karimullah.  School administrators said that both teachers of boy’s schools had gotten themselves transferred to their local hometown. “Ever since the previous teachers left no one has been willing to relocate here,” administrator Tahir Abdullah said. “The girl’s school got married another teacher and offered the clerk Rs 50,000 to secure a transfer,” he added. Due to the unavailability of teachers both schools have been closed for over six months and children in the village have pulled out of school. Residents of the area said that most of the children had already lost half a year of their studies and now the school building was collapsing. “People have begun tying their animals here and one wall of the school has been destroyed,” said grounds keeper Abid. When deputy district officer (DDO) Education Musarrat Islam was contacted in this regard and said that the school administration was searching for replacements for the vacant teaching posts. DDO Education Kamonke Khalid Javed said that one of the boy’s school teachers had been removed from his post due to misconduct.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2011.