KARACHI: Over 2,000 educational institutions wait for staff
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, Nov 25: A large number of educational institutions could not be made functional as the Sindh government has constantly been delaying a decision on providing teaching and non-teaching staff for the purpose.
There are 2,175 educational institutions waiting for the sanction of 11,799 posts for five to seven years after being constructed but the finance department has failed to do the needful, official sources said. The buildings had been raised under annual development programmes, it is learnt.
“Despite repeated requests and reminders from the education department, no post for the institutions has so far been sanctioned,” said a source calling for an immediate action.
The educational institutions are meant for primary and middle level schools, high schools and higher secondary schools, colleges and technical institutes and the buildings for most of them are ready to start academic activities.
An official at the education department observed that most of the buildings were lying vacant ever since they were built many years back and it was difficult for the department to prevent their illegal occupation by unscrupulous elements. A proper maintenance of these buildings was even more difficult, he added. He further stated that without the availability of sufficient staff, the institutions could not be run and, thus, the very purpose of these buildings could not be served.
It is learnt that an amount of approximately Rs5.2 billion has so far been spent in the construction of these buildings. The funding had been made available from time to time under the influence of various legislators over the last 10 years.
A source told this reporter on a query that interests of contractors and kick backs were involved in the construction of such a large number of buildings in the name of education but a perfect planning and availability of an enormous budget were basic requirements in running the institutions. These requirements, the source added, were never met. According to a breakup of the 2,175 buildings, 1,959 are meant for primary and 90 for middle schools.
A senior educationist said that now when the government had started working on ‘Education for All’ under the National Plan of Action, it would be in the fitness of things that it provided adequate staff at least for the primary schools.
Referring to the longstanding dearth of teaching staff for government colleges, a college teacher said the crisis had developed a considerable gap. He pointed out that scores of posts the colleges were lying vacant due to the retirement of lecturers and other teachers.
The crisis deepened following the city government’s announcement for making eight new colleges in the city functional for which it decided to acquire teachers and non-teaching staff on detailment from the old ones that were already running short of teachers.
Following are the details of the idle educational institutions:
Schools Number Required staff
Primary 1,959 7,459
Middle 90 804
HSs 55 910
HSSs 23 611
Colleges 33 1,685
Tec. Inst 15 310
There are 429 such educational institutions in Karachi, 21 in Hyderabad, 449 in Mirpurkhas, 285 in Nawabshah, 19 in Khairpur, 329 in Dadu, 18 in Larkana, 60 in Sukkur, 74 in Shikarpur, 29 in Mithi, eight in Thatta, 124 in Badin, 203 in Jacobabad, 216 in Naushahro Feroz and one in Sanghar.
A senior official at the Sindh education department opined that instead of raising more such buildings, the government should spend any further funds on the provision of the required staff for these ready-to-run educational institutions.
