SIALKOT, June 7: Out of the 31 Government Girls High Schools in Daska tehsil, 24 have been running without headmistresses since long. Similarly, the seven boys high schools of six Daska tehsil towns — Bogray, Glotiyaan, Kathiyala, Mundeyki Goraya, Sirraanwali and Buddah Goraya — have also no headmaster for quite sometime.

In the absence of most of institutional heads, the performance of boys and girls’ students is suffering badly while the discipline and spirit of the teaching and administrative staff are also at its lowest ebb.

When contacted, the highups of the Education Department said the interference by local MNAs, MPAs and nazims was the main hurdle in the way of appointments of headmistresses in Daska tehsil.

The Government Boys High School, Ghataliyaan, located in the native village of State Minister for Information Technology Ali Asjad Malhi, has also become a picture of sheer neglect.

The school, running without its headmaster for the last three years, has no facility of electricity, furniture, drinking water, toilets and boundary walls. Moreover, the school comprising three classrooms has no windows.

Owing to lack of basic facilities, the number of students has dropped to only 150 from 3,000. Now, the people are forced to send their children to schools in far-flung areas.

The Education department seemed to have turned a blind eye to repeated appeals made by the local people to improve facilities and appoint the headmaster, residents told reporters.

According to an official record, the Sialkot district has 87 government boys high schools, 90 girls high schools, 75 each boys and girls elementary schools, 1,300 each boys and girls primary schools and 1,000 Masjid Maktab schools. All these schools are without basic facilities.

Some retired and serving senior educationists said the district government had its focus only on urban areas’ primary schools.

For boys and girls’ students of 85 bordering villages of Bajwat, there is no higher secondary school or a degree college. Students have to cover a distance of more than 20 kilometres after crossing the River Tavi to reach Sialkot for getting higher education. While most of the parents are unable to afford the education of their children in Sialkot.

Chaudhry Ali Asghar, Suleman Muneer and other local people have strongly protested against the elected representatives and Education department for neglecting the Bajwat area.

They said seasonal rains and bad weather also disrupted the academic session of students. Repeated reminders spanning a period of number of years to the authorities concerned to build a bridge over river Tavi have so far borne no fruits.

“How can the dream of the ‘Parha Likha Punjab’ programme launched by Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi come true when thousands of children are deprived of education”, they questioned?

Enumerating their problems further, they said that Bajwat villages had already a few bank branches, and not one among these provided the facility of collecting admission forms or fees to local students.

When contacted, District Nazim Mian Naeem Javaid said that Rs2 billion were being spent on ensuring free education facility to students of both rural and urban areas in the Sialkot district.