No urgency: Startling numbers show desperate state of education

One school in Lakki Marwat has four teachers for over 400 students; another three educators for two

PESHAWAR: Teachers and students in Lakki Marwat probably fail to see the urgency in the education emergency imposed by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government. After all, a government primary school (GPS) in Hussainabad has three teachers for just two enrolled students, while there are four educators for over 400 students at a similar institute in Dalokhel village of the same district.

These startling figures demonstrate a glaring disparity and the level of mismanagement.

“This two-room government primary school in Hussainabad was established in 1993 and there were some 20 students on the first day,” shared a teacher over the telephone, requesting anonymity. He added with the influx of displaced people from South Waziristan, the number of students jumped up to 100 by 2009. However, the lack of basic facilities and considerable distance from populated areas discouraged children from attending.

Over the years, number dwindled—and then there were two.

A resident of Hussainabad, Malik Sardar Gul, blamed officials of the education department in Lakki Marwat for failing to attract more children to this particular institute during the recent enrolment drive.

Under staffed

He said PTI’s claims about enrolment and English-medium education seem to have gone up in smoke. Gul added bad policies have ruined the education department; just four teachers educate 435 students at GPS No-3 in Dalokhel. And three teachers are responsible for 79 at a GPS in Wanda Arsala.

Residents said parents in Dalokhel were being forced to pull their children from the state-run school and enrol them in private institutes.

An elder of the same area, Rehmat Ali Marwat, said every teacher is bound to teach a class of 40 students. “However, most of these educators have to teach two and three classes and are unable to deliver, with 120 students,” he said.

In hundreds

Lakki Marwat DEO Nizar Khattak admitted there was a burden on teachers. He said an additional 300 teachers were required for Lakki Marwat’s schools. He expressed his ignorance over the state of affairs at the two-student Hussainabad school, placing the responsibility on the shoulders of the relevant sub-division education officer (SDEO).

When contacted, SDEO Ikramullah Khan said teachers in most schools had only passed their matriculation and were unable to cope with the new English syllabus. He said the Punjab government was giving golden handshakes to such teachers who were replaced by qualified individuals at the elementary level.

However, he did not elaborate when asked about the three teachers for just two students at the GPS in Hussainabad. Ikramullah simply said he would look into the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2015.