ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: The first ever National Education Census (NEC) conducted by the federal education ministry has come up with shocking revelations like the existence of 12,737 ghost schools in the country.

Out of 164,579 government schools covered by the census, 6.8 per cent lack building, 32.3 per cent are without drinking water, 56.4 per cent without electricity, 40.5 per cent without toilet and 37.8 per cent without boundary walls.

The findings of the census were shared with journalists by Federal Minister for Education Lt-Gen (retired) Javed Ashraf Qazi on Friday.

The total number of educational institutions covered in the NEC was 245,682, 164,579 (67 per cent) in public sector and 81,103 (33 per cent) in private sector. After excluding ghost schools, and those which refused to share the information, the net number of institutions which formed the database of the census is 227,791.

The minister said that some of the 12,737 ghost schools ‘exist only on papers, others have buildings but no student or teacher,

The largest number of non-functional institutions — 7,442 (58.5 per cent) — was found in Sindh, with 4,126 refusing to provide information.

Another finding is that only 1.4 per cent of government schools offer English as medium of instructions; 68.3 per cent follow Urdu as medium of instruction and 22.4 per cent Sindhi medium.

NEC data reveals that out of 26,809 urban blocks, 6,149 have schools and colleges, and out of 50,585 villages, 10,908 have no institution.

The overall enrolment in 227,791 institutions is recorded at 33.38 millions with the teaching staff of 1.357 million.