KARACHI, May 25: Despite spending a major chunk of the educational budget on school education, the government in Sindh has badly failed to see any significant reduction in the average dropout rate in government primary schools. The latest data of the Sindh education department revealed that on average, the overall dropout rate in primary classes was 21 per cent in 2003-04, two per cent higher than in 2002-03; the rate of boys’ dropout being 23 per cent and that of girls being 18 per cent.
The details gave to understand that during 2003-04 the average dropout rates of boys and girls in urban areas was nine and four per cent respectively, while in rural areas, this rate was 26 and 27 per cent respectively.
It has been reported in the census data, prepared by the Sindh Education Management Information System for 2003-04, that a total of 40 per cent boys and 28 per cent girls (both rural and urban) enrolled in Class V did not turn up for admissions to Class VI. For rural areas, this rate was 58 and 66 per cent for boys and girl students respectively in the said year.
A comparative study of the dropout rates suggested that the rate, which started declining in 1999-2000, shot up again in 2002-03 onwards.
The situation was not encouraging, particularly in rural areas, said a source in the education department.
According to the data recorded till Jan 2004 for the census report, a total of 1,715,726 boys, and 1,074,545 girls enrolled in primary schools were provided with free textbooks by the government. Girl students, who continued their education after Class V were also provided with scholarships.
Senior academicians were of the view that the alarming situation could not be changed unless the government decided to have a strong and honest chain of field officers.
They said the number of out-of-schoolchildren could not be reduced without overcoming problems such as teachers’ non-availability or their absenteeism in schools.
Parents want to send their wards to schools, but the politically motivated or backdoor appointees mostly shy away from their assignments, and as such after sometime, they (parents) prefer withdrawing their sons or daughters from schools.
Educational officers and supervisors, who are supposed to ensure the presence of teachers in schools and availability of other facilities to students, mostly ignore their official responsibilities for their other preoccupations or commitments.
This should be checked by independent teams or senior officials of the education department, otherwise millions of rupees would continue going down the drain in the name of educational networking, the expert warned.
