KARACHI, Jan 29: Sindh would need establishment of 13,318 educational institutions, including 11,138 non-formal education centres, every year in the public sector to meet the universal primary education (UPE) target till 2015, an official report said.

The provincial action plan, prepared for achieving the Education For All (EFA) goals, as set by the Jometin Conference-1990 and subsequently revised at Dakar Conference-2000, says that in the primary education sector the total population of the children in 5-9 age group was 5.32 million in the year 2003.

The children population in the said age group would reach 6.62 million in 2015, the deadline for achieving the Dakar goals. As such there will be addition of 3.18 million children, including 1.32 million boys and 1.86 million girls, during the plan year.

The population projection has been made at a rate of 2.1 per cent in 2003, and 1.7 per cent in the last year of the plan period, ie 2015. In order to accommodate the additional enrolment of students during the years, opening of a total of 3,384 new primary schools, 10,370 Masjid schools, 12,410 community-supported schools and 13,660 non-formal and basic education centres have been suggested in the draft provincial plan of action in regard to EFA (2003-2015), Sindh.

The public sector institutions would be established in addition to those established in the private sector. UPE targets are estimated to be achieved by 2010 in case of boys and 2015 in regard to girls.

The draft Sindh Action Plan will be considered at a meeting of the Provincial EFA Forum, scheduled to be held on Feb 10, with Sindh Education minister in chair. The EFA plan focuses on adult literacy and early childhood education as well.

The provincial plan's estimated cost is about Rs78 billion, including Rs51 billion that of the primary education component. The proposed amount will be arranged through Sindh government's own resources, which included annual development schemes funds, federal government and donor agencies, while district governments would also be motivated to generate funds from their resources.

Taking into consideration measures taken by the Sindh government, in regard to education at primary and middle school levels, the official report mentioned that despite its good intentions, the Sindh government's performance seemed unsatisfactory.

Reasons behind government's poor performance in this regard included a lack of awareness among the community members, lack of concern among people occupying managerial posts and a lack of coordination between provincial and district governments.

Besides, the set target could not be achieved mainly due to non-opening of new primary schools and ban on appointments, which hampered the opening of closed schools. According to SEMIS data, at present more than 5,000 schools were lying closed, added the report. It was further said that 35 per cent students, out of 4852,771 boys and girls of 5-9 age group, are not attending schools.