Frozen in time

Reviving govt schools, converting them into institutions that offer quality education may hold key to our future.

There is nothing especially unusual about the government school at Dhoke Kala Khan in Rawalpindi city, where many of the 500 pupils enrolled sit on icy floors and seven teachers share between them the two chairs available to sit on. The few rugs available to the small pupils to sit on have been brought in by teachers, sanitation is dismal, there is no playground and children complain of the bitter cold they endure for the sake of acquiring an education.

There are other schools not much different from this one scattered throughout our country. The conditions at these schools explain both the high drop-out rate, with nearly 50 per cent of children enrolled at them dropping out before completing their primary education, and the rapid growth of seminary schools. Our leaders have, of course, in the past spoken at length on the need to even out and improve education; even to set up new schools to replace the old. The Danish schools in Punjab are an example. But there are far too many schools, including this one in Dhoke Kala Khan, where both teachers and pupils complain bitterly about the conditions they must tolerate. Here, the administration says efforts to talk to authorities have failed. Meanwhile, the six marlas of land donated to the school for the construction of a proper building have been seized by land grabbers.

Everyone in any position to act needs to do so. This includes those representing the people of the area. Reviving government schools and converting them into institutions able to offer quality education to children may hold the key to our future. Allowing these schools to, quite literally, fall into ruin was a disaster. The question now is what can be done to reverse the situation and make sure every child receives an education that can benefit them. As a start, representatives can visit public schools in their constituencies and build pressure to ensure they possess, at least, the basic amenities, as a start to restructuring government schools which should be playing a key role in educating our children.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2014.

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