Over 1,300 government-run primary, middle and high schools have been found closed in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan, it emerged on Tuesday.

The schools have been non-functional for the last few years as a result of poor governance, lethargy in the appointment of teachers by authorities, and chronic absence of teachers, an officer in the education department who declined to be named since he was not authorised to speak to media told DawnNewsTV.

More than 250 government primary, middle and high schools have been found shut in Quetta and Pishin districts alone.

See: Schools without roofs: the state of govt-run schools in Balochistan

The figures were revealed during a meeting of all district education officers held in Quetta recently and chaired by the Balochistan education secretary Noorul Haq Baloch.

However, independent sources put the number of non-functional schools in the province higher than what was stated during the meeting.

When asked to comment on the reasons behind the closed schools, the secretary said the process of appointment of teachers in Balochistan was in the final phase.

"With the new appointments, we will be able to re-open the non-functional schools in the province," Baloch added.

In Balochistan, the number of government-run primary, middle and high schools is estimated at above 13,000. The government in the recent past had established a complaint management cell to help the masses inform authorities about closed schools and 'ghost' teachers.

Mobeen Khilji, a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) member of Balochistan Assembly, regretted that 150 government-run schools have been padlocked in Quetta, the provincial capital and largest city of Balochistan, for a long time.

Successive past governments had constructed school buildings and upgraded hundreds of other schools in the province. However, they failed to appoint qualified teachers to turn these buildings into functional institutions of learning.

"Our governments only focused on the construction of buildings rather than making schools functional," Rafiullah Kakar, a Quetta-based educationist, observed.

He said the education department needs to be reformed to ensure the implementation of Article 25-A of the Constitution, which says: “The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to 16 years...”.