KARACHI: Little progress on compulsory primary education plan
By Hasan Mansoor
KARACHI, Oct 2: Despite a lapse of five years since the formulation of the Sindh Compulsory Primary Education Rules 2002, their implementation does not appear to come about any time soon.
Following the guidance of the Sindh Compulsory Primary Education Ordinance, 2001, the provincial education department had formulated the rules in 2002 with the prime objective to make primary education compulsory and minimize the otherwise growing rate of the out-of-school children every year.
However, officials admit that despite formulation of the rules the department did far little to implement them effectively and the number of out-of-school children keeps on increasing.
According to official figures, some 50 per cent boys and 65 per cent girls of age between five to nine years are still out of schools as less than three million out of over seven million children are enrolled.
In Karachi, slightly more than 500,000 out of over two million children of this age group are enrolled in schools putting the percentage of out-of-school boys and girls 74 per cent and 77 per cent, respectively.
In Sindh, only 2,600 primary schools out of 41,000 primary schools are established in Karachi.
Under the rules, the competent authority has been assigned to properly implement the Compulsory Primary Education Ordinance 2001 and direct the primary schools within its jurisdiction to maintain birth record of the children within the catchments area of such schools in collaboration with the respective area council.
However, sources in the education department said such arrangement had not been made so far due to resource constraints and lack of collaboration between the union councils and the managements of the primary schools.
Besides, sources said, the government schools did not show interest in inquiring about the number of children in their catchments, which was ultimately resulting in mushroom growth of private schools.
The authority has also been assigned to appoint a teacher of a primary school as an attendant ordinarily having at least a 10-year experience. The attendant was to ensure regular attendance of the students, enrolled in the school.
Sources, however, said none of the primary schools in Karachi and elsewhere had made such arrangement. The main reason had been a shortage of teaching staff due to a ban imposed by the government on teachers’ recruitment since 1993.
Other bylaws formulated by the education department had assigned the attendant to advise parents/ guardian or employer to ensure regular attendance of their children failing which the matter be reported to the authority through the head of school. Besides, the authority or any person authorized by it in this behalf shall from time to time inspect primary schools within its jurisdiction.
According to the Compulsory Primary Education Ordinance 2001, the parent or employer, who fails to send a child to the school, will be fined of Rs50 by the authority for a particular period and if a child is not sent in the given period the parent or child would have to be fined of Rs25 everyday until the child reports back to the school.
Sources in the department said the rules could not be implemented by the education department, nor the school managements could enforce them simply because they did not have ample magisterial powers.
Although the authority under the rules has been tasked with inspection of all the schools in its jurisdiction to ensure regular attendance of children and for the purpose may issue notice to the parents and pass orders. However, such inspection were still awaited, sources said.
