ISLAMABAD: Ten-year-old Sobia Shahzad asks the government why her classroom does not even have a chair for her to sit on? She is a fifth-grade student at the Islamabad Model School for Girls (IMCG), Khanna Dak, about 10 kilometres from the power corridors where educational policies are made.

The conditions at her school, however, are similar to those in underdeveloped rural areas of the country. The middle section of the school is located in a ramshackle rented building while the primary school has its own building, also in a state of disrepair.

Most of the 650 girls at this school sit on reed mats while scores of others from the fifth and sixth classes are crammed in the corridors.

“We feel ashamed that we neither have furniture in our school nor proper classrooms. My friends who study in private schools make fun of me for being a student of a school like this,” Sobia said.

Most other students at the school echoed the same sentiments. “My friend Hafza who goes to a private school in Ghori Town laughs at me for having a corridor for a classroom,” said Iqra, a sixth grader.

“Our school is being called a ‘model’ school, but we don’t even have a single bench to sit on,” said Sobia’s teacher, choosing not to be named.

Though this school is not far from the Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) and the federal education ministry, bureaucrats appear to be ignorant of the plight of the students.

Students at IMCG school, Khanna Dak forced to study in deplorable conditions

Along with 390 other schools, this was also given the status of a ‘model’ school in 2010 following a directive by then prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.

The idea was for all schools of the federal capital to have equal status, hence an equal standard of facilities and quality of education.

“Following the prime minister’s directive, we just changed the nomenclatures of all the Federal Government (FG) schools, but they were never brought at par with the old model schools in terms of facilities and quality of education,” said a senior officer at the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) on the condition of anonymity.

With no furniture, students are forced to sit on the floor during the class.

Teachers at both the primary and middle schools told Dawn that their students cannot even play as there was no space. They said the buildings were so dilapidated that they could collapse any day. However, it appears that officials of the FDE are not taking the problems at this school seriously, they said.

Mohammad Feroz, a resident of the area, said they had repeatedly complained to the education department about the conditions at the school but received no response.

“No one cares about schools. Education is not a priority for those in power,” he said.

Schools in rural areas of the federal capital are far more neglected than those in the urban areas. There are 257 schools in the rural areas and a vast majority of them face the shortage of teachers and facilities.

A senior official of the FDE said officers at CADD and FDE focused their energies on schools in urban areas.

Meanwhile, teachers are also reluctant to join schools in the rural areas.

Abbas Ali Maka, Area Education Officer (AEO), told Dawn that efforts were being made to construct new buildings for the girls’ school at Khana and for arranging furniture.

“In the past, there was one building which housed both the primary and middle school. There was also enough furniture. However, since the enrollment went up, the primary section was shifted to a rented building and the existing furniture was not enough.”

He said the construction of new buildings was in the pipeline; however, PC-1 of the project is awaiting approval from the concerned authorities.

It thus appears that students like Sobia and Iqra will continue to study in deplorable conditions until the concerned authorities find the time to give approval for a more respectable arrangement.

Published in Dawn January 21st , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play