ISLAMABAD, April 10: There are 13,763 mosque schools in Pakistan with Punjab having the highest number of 8,082 schools to cater to the educational needs especially in areas where formal primary schools were not available in the nearby vicinity.
An official source told Dawn that out of 13,763 schools, no such school was functioning in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
Tracing history, the source said around 37,000 Masjid/Maktab schools were opened throughout the country under the Masjid/Maktab school concept which was introduced under Education Policy and Implementation Programme (1979). But majority of these schools were converted to regular primary schools or closed down due to availability of regular formal schools in the close vicinity.
Of these 13,763 schools, 12,417 are in the rural areas while 1,346 are functioning in the urban areas. Interestingly, there are only 32 schools in the rural areas where both boys and girls are getting education in a mixed environment, while none is present in the urban areas.
Similarly, 71 schools exclusively meant for girls are functioning in the rural areas, while there are 31 such schools in the urban areas compared to 12,314 schools for boys in the rural areas and 1,315 in the urban areas.
The total number of masjid/maktab schools in NWFP is 3,210; Baluchistan, 813, and AJK, 1,409, but none in Sindh.
The Masjid/Maktab school concept was introduced to provide easy access to the primary school age children, particularly those living in rural areas so as to universalize primary education through a cost-effective approach. These schools were opened in the existing mosques of the villages or settlements.
Initially, while implementing the policy it was decided that 5,000 such schools would be established for boys with a purpose to utilize the potential already existing in the communities. In the initial stages, this arrangement was regarded as a temporarily expedient alternative and if proved successful, primary education was to be developed around these indigenous structures.
It was decided that the mosques schools would be opened only in those villages where normal primary schools did not exist or where a primary school was not available in the vicinity, while backward areas of the country will be allocated more schools.
It was also decided that a mosque school would be provided with a trained PTC (primary teaching course) teacher in addition to the Imam of the mosque, who would share most of the burden of teaching.
