KARACHI, Dec 23: Pakistan People’s Party on Tuesday expressed concern over the declining trend in school enrolment.

In a statement, Taj Haider, central information secretary of the PPP, said the present government’s apathy towards primary education was a rerun of the policies of the Zia dictatorship.

The fact that a full 13 million children out of the total 50 million in the age groups of five to nine are not enrolled in schools, had a devastating long-term implication, he emphasised. This backlog of illiteracy would be carried over for the next more than 50 years.

“In the most backward regions of the world i.e. South Asia, we are now the most backward country, even behind Bhutan and Nepal,” said Mr Haider.

He claimed that the Social Action Programme (SAP-I) started in 93 by the PPP government had achieved all targets and the necessary infrastructure for primary education was already in place in every nook and corner of the country. Under the SAP-II programme, 100 per cent enrolment was targeted to be achieved by year 2000.

“Three years after that date, we are nowhere near the targets and the enrolment trend is further declining. The SAP programme was discontinued by the succeeding governments and with the passage of time, the situation had worsened”.

The irony was that these governments had been blaming the People’s Government for having constructed thousands of school buildings. They kept on complaining that they had no budget for employing the necessary teaching staff.

“Local influential and criminal elements have today occupied many of these buildings. Unless drastic measure are immediately taken, we will be back to the point where Ziaul Haq had left us,” said Mr Haider.

He pointed out even the poorest in Pakistan are fully conscious of the importance of educating their children. The lower middle and the middle classes are spending a large part of their meagre incomes in educating their children in private educational institutions.