April 13, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 6, 1429

RAWALPINDI, April 12: A majority of the schools in the most literate district of Punjab have no electricity, drinking water, boundary walls, adequate furniture or even latrines while 3,055 posts of teachers have been lying vacant for a long time.

According to an official document prepared by City District Government, Rawalpindi, (CDGR) the district has an overall literacy rate of 75 per cent (85 per cent males and 65 per cent female) while it was 70 per cent in the rural areas and 81 per cent in urban areas. The district is ranked first in terms of literacy among the 35 districts of the province. But the document at the same time admitted that the infrastructure of the schools was in a state of general decay.

There are some 1,895 primary schools in the district of which 1,012 had no electricity, 805 were without drinking water, 649 had no boundary walls, 912 had no latrines and 411 were without furniture. There are 25,73,106 students enrolled in the district at primary level of which 137,349 were girls and 120, 037 boys. At this level, some 810 posts of teachers are vacant making the Para Likha Punjab a distant dream.

According to the documents available with Dawn, there are 280 middle schools in the district. Some 110,330 students are enrolled at the middle level of which 56,855 are boys and 53,475 girls. Seventy-four middle schools have no electricity, 75 have no drinking water, 103 have no boundary walls, 128 have no latrines and 96 are without furniture. Some 565 posts of the teachers are lying vacant in the middle schools.

Some 257 high schools in the district have 54,914 students on their rolls. Of them 28,468 are boys and 26,446 girls. The schools that are without electricity are 17 while 41 have no drinking water, 79 have no boundary walls, 104 have no latrines for students and 81 schools are without furniture. As many as 1,195 posts of teachers are unoccupied.

As far as the situation of 18 higher secondary schools offering intermediate level education is concerned, there are two schools without electricity, four are without drinking water, nine are without boundary walls, seven are without latrines for the students and 14 schools are without furniture. Some 26,033 students are enrolled in higher secondary schools where 245 posts of teachers are vacant.

Interestingly the private educational institutions outnumber the public sector institutes in Rawalpindi. There are 2,403 public schools whereas the number of private schools is 3,044 and the ratio of provision of education shared across private and public schooling is 5 per cent and 45 per cent respectively.