PHOTO: FILE
"There are animals kept in schools and the buildings have been turned into stables. This is what we are doing to our children when education is a constitutional right," Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said as he took up a petition from a year ago on the matter.
Nearly half of all primary school age children and nearly three quarters of young girls are not enrolled in primary school in Pakistan, according to a UN and government report published in December.
Education is a major challenge in Pakistan, where the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says public spending on education is less than 2.5 per cent of the GDP. Only nine countries in the world spend less on education.
In a surprising move, the chief justice on Monday took up a petition dating from a year back filed by a charity in Sindh asking the Supreme Court to investigate fake schools, most of them in rural districts.
He ordered district judges across Pakistan to survey fake schools and submit a report by March 18.
"The government has failed to provide any answer or details about the state of ghost and non-functional schools, while apparently funds and salaries were being disbursed as buildings remain abandoned or occupied by animals," he said.
"This is not the court's job to micro mange things, but we have to enforce fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution," Chaudhry added.
Rehmatullah, the coordinator of charity Sindh Rural Development Society who brought the petition, said 60,000 children alone are not going to school in the rural Sindh district of Matiari.
He showed the judges photos and newspaper reports about a school being used as a police station in the village of Jati.
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No it's not delayed justice. Stop using these suggestive headlines. Remember the Court is trying to simultaneously do the jobs the other 2 branches of government should do- i.e. policy creation and not sitting around like lobby fodder in the assemblies as well as acting responsibly like the executive should be doing.
“This is not the court’s job to micro mange things, but we have to enforce fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution,” Chaudhry added.
My Lord! With you and the likes of you drawing Rs600000+ in salaries, lavish residences, an army of servants, a fleet of BMWs, and Mercedes, there is little left to "enforce the fundamental right of education". Whatever was left was spent on a 20Km Road. Now if we reduce your salaries, or perks or TA/DAs, you would label that as an attack on the independence of judiciary. Just like a call for reduction in defense budge is labelled as an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty. Why don't you lead us to the magic purse of endless resources, given that you are so righteous and pious, you should know what we ordinary humans don't.
I went to school at a time when government schools were considered much better than their private counterparts and the top students used to line up for these schools and colleges. Now I don't know a single person in my circle of friends and family who dares to send their kids to government schools. Our government has really systematically ruined education in this country.
STEVTA institutes.
good job .......