LARKANA, Nov 14: The government has failed to address the grim situation of education as 130 schools are lying closed in the district for a long time.

The number of children of school-going age in the district is 495,684 and 300,432 of them are out of schools.

There are 89 school buildings which have been declared dangerous, but children are studying there.

Sources in the education department told Dawn on Tuesday that the Sindh Education Management Information System had prepared ‘Sindh Education Profile’ of each district which based on information in the 2005-06 census.

The chief programme manager of the reform support unit, Mr Iqbal Durrani, in a letter to the Larkana EDO (education) on October 14, said the district education profile was based on census, therefore, first-hand information be provided to the unity.

But the reform support unit had not received comments which had delayed finalisation of the district education profile.

The sources said that not a single district had sent the comments.

The number of school going children from pre-primary to higher secondary level is estimated at 195,252, the sources said.

It looks quite tricky on the part of bureaucrats that enrolment has increased while the number of teachers has decreased from 5,965 (in year 2002) to 5,842 (in year 2005).

No new school has been constructed since then.

A cursory eye over qualification of teachers tells that only 2,522 teachers had their graduation and 2,362 did their masters.

It means there is an army of 958 non-graduate teachers alone in Larkana district imparting education in government-run education institutions.

The quarters concerned has neglected rural areas in education, which could be gauged from the fact that the number of ‘shelter-less’ school in rural areas was 250 out of 255 in the Larkana district.

It means only five schools are located in urban areas.

The survey said since 2000 to 2006, not a single new school was added to already existing schools.

Instead, one school was closed, reducing number from 1,336 to 1,335. Hundreds of schools are devoid of basic facilities, electricity, toilets, drinking water and boundary walls.

In the district, 1,069 schools, with the highest number of primary (1,016), are running without electricity, 508 are without toilets, 335 has no facility of drinking water and 639 has no boundary walls.