How not to educate

Despite their non-functionality,the schools in Sindh still have ghost teachers who draw very real salaries every month

It is surprising that the Sindh education minister was able to announce without so much as a bat of the eyelid that a single village in Tharparker had 54 schools. He seemingly has no qualms about this. It was during the Sindh Assembly session on February 10 that some fascinating statistics relating to education were parlayed to the assembled worthies. The minister admitted that the schools were, for the most part, either lying empty or being used as residences. Despite their non-functionality as anything remotely connected to education, the schools still have ghost teachers who draw very real salaries every month. Common sense has actually been enshrined in regulations relating to the establishment of schools, and there should be 1.5km between each one, but sometimes dozens of schools have been established in villages that may have only a handful of houses — a breakdown of just about every rule in the book and an indicator of massive corruption.

In an attempt to deflect the ridicule coming his way, the minister announced that no new buildings are to be built unless they fulfil the basic criteria for population levels and likely enrollment — but there was no announcement about the termination of salary payment to ghost teachers which must take a sizeable slice from the education budget. Part of the problem appears to be political, with a former education minister allegedly denying the establishment of schools in PPP-dominated areas, making a nonsense of the ‘education for all’ slogan and demonstrating a wilful and possibly criminal neglect of the education of thousands of children. A survey is to be conducted as to how many ‘surplus’ schools there are and some may be moved to other areas, others auctioned. But the damage has been done and there is no quick fix. Moreover, there will also most likely be a resistance to measures to fix this situation, but this must be done to root out corruption and inefficiency in the education sector and do away with the culture of neglect.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th,  2014.

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