ISLAMABAD, April 28: Half of the government schools in the country have no access to water and washrooms, while 70 per cent of them are without electricity.

“Proportion of public schools with basic facilities is quite dismal in all provinces and regions except Islamabad,” said the finance ministry in its June-December 2005 report on poverty.

The report suggests that expenditure on eight of the 17 sectors relating to poverty reduction effort had declined as percentage of national economy, although total expenditure improved significantly owing to a massive spending on areas hit by the Oct 8 earthquake.

The amount of Zakat disbursed during the second quarter declined by 19 per cent to Rs922 million compared with same period of the previous year, although the number of beneficiaries increased by three per cent to 405,000.

The report said 50 per cent of public schools in the country had no boundary walls.

Only 17 per cent of the schools in Balochistan had access to water, 21 per cent to latrines, 12 per cent to electricity and 29 per cent had boundary walls, it said.

In Sindh, about 46 per cent of the public schools had access to water, 49 per cent had latrines and 21 per cent electric connection, it said.

In the NWFP, 50 per cent of the schools had water and 59 per cent latrines, while 63 per cent had no electricity connections, it said.

In Punjab, 79 per cent of the schools had access to water, 49 per cent to latrines and 36 per cent had electricity connections, it said.

On the other hand, the report said, there were 100 per cent trained teachers in public schools in Islamabad, Punjab, the NWFP, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Northern Areas, the report said. The number of trained teachers in Sindh and Balochistan ranged between 95 per cent and 99 per cent, it said.

According to the report, only 41-47 per cent pregnant women in the county had coverage of tetanus toxoid immunisation.

The report said the core inflation (non-food, non-energy) had increased to 7.6 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal year as against 6.6 per cent during the same period last year. The overall inflation was estimated at 8.4 per cent as against 8.8 per cent of last year.

The current account deficit excluding official transfers stood at $3 billion against $830 million of last year, mainly because of substantial increase in trade and services account deficit.