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70,000 schools without basic facilities: minister
RAWALPINDI, Aug 7: As many as 70,000 schools in the country are without
the basic facilities of water, electricity, lavatories and boundary walls, and
the federal government has committed itself to ensure provision of all missing
facilities in the institutions under the Rs100 billion Education Reforms
Programme.
This was stated by Minister of State for Education Anisa Zeb
Tahirkheli on Monday.
According to the National Education Census carried
out with a Rs185 million aid from the United Nations Development Programme,
there are 247,000 schools in the country.
The minister was speaking at
the opening of a week-long summer camp for the male position holders of 27
education boards in the Secondary School Certificate examination 2007, at
Lawrence College, Ghora Gali Murree.
The camp has been arranged by the
Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Rawalpindi under the aegis of the
Inter- Board Committee of Chairmen.
Ms Tahirkheli said there were
1,500,000 teachers in the government schools, where some 33,000,000 students
were getting education.
The missing facilities in the institutions would
be provided in the first phase of the Education Reforms Programme. While in the
second phase, facilities for extra-curricular activities would be made available
and the respective provinces would provide buildings and furniture for the
projects.
She said to attain 100 per cent literacy rate at the primary
level by 2015, every child in the country should be enrolled in school by 2010.
"We have to check the increasing trend of drop-out," she added.
In this
connection, the government has planned to focus on the far-off areas of
Balochistan and Federally-Administered Tribal Areas.
She said the
government would select 1,000 brilliant students from these areas and give them
education in the best institutes of the country. After completion of education
they will be asked to serve in their native areas.
Speaking on the
occasion, chairman BISE Rawalpindi Dr Iftikhar Ahmed Baig said the participants
of the 8th camp hailing from different parts of the country would spend together
a week full of educational and recreational activities. Dawn
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