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Dilapidated govt school in posh part of city
KARACHI, Sept 27: Diogenes Laėrtius, a biographer of Greek philosophers, once said that
"the foundation of every state is the education of its youth." The platform for
education is a school and we looked at one such school situated in
Zamzama to see how much the government cares about its "foundation."
The
'Government Girls and Boys Ik Ik Primary and Lower Secondary School' is
dilapidated, unhygienic and has only a handful of teachers some of whom don't
even come to class to teach. These are not the features of every school in the
city of course, but are the features of government schools in
particular.
The student body consists of around 500 children studying in
the primary and lower secondary classes. The school is large with a few swings
set up near the main gate and a central courtyard. However, while the land
allotted may be plentiful, there hasn't been much effort in maintaining the
school's buildings.
Litter is scattered behind the swings. The walls and
the floors are lined with cracks. Certain areas of the school are so neglected
that the faculty fears the roof may fall at any time. The classes in these areas
have been vacated for fear of the students' lives. A soggy smell and a
greenish-brown hue of the lower walls indicate that, since the school is at a
lower level than the road outside, more than two inches of water had submerged
the central courtyard.
"There was also water in our offices," said
Mohammad Tayyab, the secondary section's science teacher, who is currently also
trying to serve the duties of headmaster. He gestures at a rusty tin cupboard in
the office. "This cupboard holds all the school's important records. The two
lower shelves of the cupboard were drenched in the rain. We had to take all the
papers out, dry them in the sun and then put them back in. The base of this
cupboard could collapse any day now and we are going to get it reconstructed.
Buying a new cupboard is beyond our budget."
The school's student body
mostly comes from the nearby Neelam Colony. The majority of their parents work
in low-income jobs as sweepers, gardeners and maids. "We don't charge our
students any fee," informed Mr Tayyab. "However, we are doing this of our own
free will and haven't gotten any letter from the government instructing us to do
so. We only read in the newspaper that fees should not be charged, but, for a
policy to be implemented in a government school a signed letter has to be issued
by the authorities."
Textbooks are also supposed to be provided by the
government. "This year, the books arrived on time, but last year they didn't.
The students had to buy them themselves," disclosed Mr Tayyab. "Furthermore, the
textbooks on computer science just go to waste. Presumably, the government is
supposed to arrange for a few computers and an instructor along with the
textbooks. We only receive the books. We have issued complaints regarding this
but to no avail." In desperation, the school's staff decided to charge nominal
fees from the students and set up a computer lab on their own. Their plans were
thwarted by the Sindh Education Foundation, who warned them that they could be
accused of acquiring money from students for their own personal use.
The
school is besieged by staff problems as well. "In the lower secondary section,
we only have six permanent teachers, with other teachers being temporary. There
is also no headmaster," said Mr. Tayyab. "Our headmaster is supposedly sick and
nobody has been sent to replace him. As a result, junior teachers like me end up
in charge. We haven't been trained to run a school and we don't have much
authority over the other teachers. By law, if a teacher takes more than 25 days
off in a year without a valid excuse, his or her pay is decreased. At our
school, teachers are absent for a number of days but since there is no
headmaster, their pay is not cut. The attendance sheet goes to the Distributing
Drawing Officer (DDO) who sits in Bolton and is supposed to sign salary cheques
for teachers from around 200 schools. He doesn't have time to rifle through the
records and ascertain how many days each teacher has been absent."
The
staff of the school said that if only they were provided with a headmaster who
had signing authority, the school could be run more efficiently and a check
could be put on teacher attendance. "Right now, if a fan is broken, we have to
go all the way to Bolton and get a cheque signed by the DDO," complained Mr.
Tayyab. "The students end up sitting in the heat without a fan for four whole
days."
If this wasn't enough, the school is also a victim to small-scale
robberies. Currently, their night watchman is serving his duty during the
daytime. The authorities have as yet failed to provide another watchman.
Consequently, the building remains unguarded during the night and fans and
electrical wires get stolen.
Nevertheless, the small staff of the
'Government Girls and Boys Ik Ik School' musters along. They can cope with the
government's mismanagement and the unhygienic surroundings. What discourages
them most is the students' disinterest in studies. "I teach English to the lower
secondary section and I am sometimes appalled that even sixth grade students
can't recognize the alphabet," said Mrs. Suraiya Bhatti. "Mainly, the students
are disinterested because they hail from families where education is not given
much importance. Their parents work all day and are too tired in the evenings to
cajole their children into studying. Also, the textbooks provided are very
boring. The English books, for instance, are only filled with grammar lessons
and dialogues. There are no stories or poems that could interest the child into
trying to learn the language." Daily Times
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| Education News | | Updated: 25 May, 2012 |
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