TAXILA: The Government Primary School Dhoke Durab has no boundary wall, no toilets or water supply and has cracks in its walls. The school, established in 1999, does not have chairs for students of six classes, who have to sit on the bare floor, even in the winters.

The school is an example of the neglect faced by public sector schools in rural areas of the province, despite tall claims made by the government and slogans like ‘Parho Punjab Barho Punjab’ drafted for the reason.

A student of the school, Asif, told Dawn it is almost intolerable to sit on the cold floor every morning for lessons and that the school does not even have rugs for the students to sit on.

Another student, Fatima, told Dawn that because the school does not have a proper water supply system, students go to get water from nearby houses, and that many people get angry at them for asking for water all the time.

The school did not have even a sweeper to clean up the school’s courtyard and classrooms, and this job was done by students themselves.

The school’s principal, Saira Jabeen, said that the fact that there was even a school in such a remote, far flung area at the foot of Margalla Hills was a blessing.

Ms Jabeen said executives from the district office often made visits to the school, but had never promised to provide the school with proper furniture, despite repeated requests.

Talking to Dawn about the difficulties students at the school face, the mother of one of the students, Bilquis Bibi said that those who made policies did so in well furnished, comfortable offices.

“How can they know what it is like to sit on the bare floor in the cold weather; my children come home complaining of pain in their legs,” she said.

A resident of the area, Nasir Mehmood, said the millions spend on publicising claims of the government’s ‘achievements’ in the education sector should be spent on actually bringing improvements to schools.

“We don’t know why the government is not funding schools in rural areas”, he said.

The president of The Voice, an NGO working in the education sector said the government needed to provide public schools with the basic facilities at least, if it wanted to raise the literacy rate.

“There are many vacant posts for teachers that need to be filled, and so many schools don’t even have running water. This needs to be fixed if we want our younger generation to take interest in education”, he said.

Deputy District Officer (Education) Abdul Khaliq said the district and provincial education authorities could not do anything about the situation because of a lack of funds.

He said provision of basic facilities to schools was a top priority of the department.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2016