KARACHI: Politics has ruined education in Sindh: PPP
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, Dec 11: The Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly, Nisar Khuhro, has drawn a close link between unemployment and the rising rate of students dropping out of school. He said an eminent social scientist had claimed good governance was not possible without improving the quality of services rendered by the state for the poor, bringing a larger number of the deprived in the net of these services, creating new opportunities for them and devising ways and means to overcome the backlog caused by decades of exploitation and neglect.
Mr Nisar Ahmed Khuhro while delivering his presidential address on “The Crisis of Education in Sindh” in the weekly talk organised by Pakistan Peoples Party at Peoples Secretariat drew a close link between unemployment and the alarming increase in school dropout rate.
He said 50 per cent of the population in Sindh was living below the poverty line. Such people were making a large economic sacrifice by pulling their children out of the child labour sector and sending them to schools. If no teachers were provided in the schools or the ones provided did not care to perform their duty, such children were only wasting their time. In such cases the next best option for the parents was to get their children apprenticed with some kind of profession so they could contribute to the family income and develop some skills. Mr Khuhro said those “elected” in rigged elections brought benefits to only the unscrupulous elements that helped them in rigging the elections. He assured the audience the PPP was cognizant of their own shortcomings. However, it would not be found lacking in political and do its duty and remove these deficiencies.
Chairman Indus Resource Centre, Ms Sadiqa Salahuddin, speaking on the occasion said the political game of widening the gap between different classes in a society started from dividing education between the rich and the poor. Education was a great equaliser, and therefore, it should be the first political priority for all those who were struggling for creation of a classless society”.
She regretted that the schools run by the government that had imparted quality education in national languages had fallen victim to neglect and apathy. She pointed out that while India had reduced the number of children not going to schools from 15 million to just 4.5 million, in Pakistan, the government figure of children not going to schools stood at 6.5 million. She pointed out that according to the country wise UNESCO survey of children denied their basic right of enrolling in a school, Pakistan had the second highest number in the world after Nigeria.
She maintained there were 40,559 primary schools in Sindh, of which 5,000 were closed. There were 6,000 schools that were only for girls whereas 16,000 were co-education institutions. There were 2.7 million children enrolled in these schools. Of these at least 130,000 were categorised as “permanently absent” without explaining why such children should still be treated as enrolled students. Taken together with students enrolled in private schools the total number of students enrolled at the primary level in the province was 3.9 million.
Speaking of children who had never been enrolled in a primary school Ms Salahuddin said even in urban centres like Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur 40 per cent of the children had never seen the inside of a classroom. In the rural areas the enrolment situation was pathetic. In some districts, 60 per cent of girls were not enrolled. The official argument that people did not send their daughters to schools because of poverty and age old traditions was totally false, she asserted.
Large dropout rates were the second biggest problem and observed at two distinct stages. The first was between Classes 1 and 2, and the second between Classes 5 and 6. In urban areas the dropout was 18 per cent in the first stage and 25 per cent in the second stage. In rural areas, 40 per cent of the children dropped out at the Classes 1 to 2 stage, while the dropout rate at Classes 5 to 6 stage was 56 per cent. No wonder there were 3,900 secondary schools, a ridiculously low number in Sindh, and more than half of these, approximately 2000, had less than 50 students each, she said.
She severely criticised the appointment of teachers on political grounds. She said the number of teachers in Sindh in the year 2000 was 99,000 which had dropped to 96,000 in 2004, mainly because the party-wise quotas of appointments had not been agreed upon.
She said multiple systems of education in the country had done education a lot of harm. The medium of instruction for primary and secondary education should be the national languages because comprehension is best in one’s mother tongue. She proposed a uniform system of education and made a strong case for putting in place a network of non-formal schools where those who had reached 12/ 13 years of age without ever enrolling in a school could be given a second chance and access to accelerated learning.
