SIALKOT: Up to 1,169 villages in Sialkot district lack public schools for boys while 126 villages have no government school at all, according to official figures.

In the absence of public schools, the private sector has mushroomed in recent years.

At present, there are 430 primary schools for boys and 1,043 girls’ primary schools in Sialkot district.

The number of high schools is also alarmingly low, and students have to travel for miles every day to reach campuses.

According to the senior education department officials, there are 76 government high schools for Sialkot tehsil’s 596 villages, 54 in Daska tehsil’s 250 villages, 61 in Pasrur tehsil’s 597 villages and 32 high schools in Sambrial tehsil’s 156 villages.

The last 17 years were difficult for public schools as the number went down to 2,006 from 3,962 schools.

Officials added that the population of Sialkot district was 4.5 million.

Likewise, Sialkot district has 29 government higher secondary schools - 21 for girls and eight for boys - in major towns. The tehsil-wise breakup of school is as under: there are 16 higher secondary schools, 76 high schools, 103 middle schools and 465 primary schools in the tehsil; the Daska tehsil has six higher secondary schools, 54 high schools, 63 middle schools and 321 primary schools; three higher secondary schools, 32 high schools, 22 middle schools and 198 government primary schools are in Sambrial tehsil; and four higher secondary schools, 61 high schools, 93 middle schools and 489 primary schools are in Pasrur tehsil here.

When it comes to students’ gender, 14,085 boys and 17,093 girls are studying in eight and 20 higher secondary schools in the district.

Girls are ahead of boys in high schools to: 71,492 boys students are enrolled in 93 high schools, while 76,178 girls are studying in 124 girls high schools. The similar trends can be seen in elementary and primary schools.

There are 34,885 students in 108 boys’ elementary schools and 35,792 in 178 girls’ elementary schools. Similarly, 76,620 students are in 476 boys’ primary schools and 76,383 in 990 girls schools.

District Education Authority Chief Executive Officer Muhammad Farooq and District Monitoring Officer Muhammad Aamir Raza said over the years 500 maktab masjid schools had been closed down in the district, while in the last two years, several government schools were handed over to the Punjab Education Foundation. On the other hand, the number of registered private schools has reached 6,000.

Officials said that most of government schools’ teachers were running their private schools and academies.

Several retired and serving teachers have expressed grave concern over the situation. They demanded that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif order a third party audit of all the government schools.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2017