ISLAMABAD, Feb 13: The tall claims made by the successive governments to raise the education standard in the country proved hollow slogans as many of the educational institutions in the capital rural areas lack basic facilities and are short of the teaching staff.

During the visit it was revealed that these schools had no basic facilities. Moreover, English and Science teachers were not available for the students and thus their studies were seriously affecting.

FG Girls Middle School New Shakrial has only 14 teachers for about 11,00 students. The school was upgraded to middle standard in 2008, since then there has not been a single trained teacher of English, Math, Science and Computer Science and the school has been working without a headmistress for a long time.

A senior staff member of the school who is running the school affairs told Dawn: “Many a time the relevant authority was informed about the missing facilities and the vacant post of headmistress but to no avail.”

FG Boys Middle School New Shakrial also has the same story. The school was upgraded in 2008 but the up-gradation remained limited to the files as neither the building was enlarged nor were the teachers provided to meet the extra needs of the institution. The construction of the new building after passage of three years could no be completed yet.

In FG Boys Primary School Herdogher, eight posts of teachers were sanctioned but there were only three teachers to teach about 300 students. A senior official of the school said he requested many times for teaching staff particularly for English subject but the authorities concerned turned a deaf ear to the requests.

A senior official in Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) said: “The shortage of the teachers in rural area schools is alarming which has been badly ruining the educational standard and the available teachers are excessively overloaded.” He said: “As many as 274 educational institutions out of 418 are in rural areas and many of them are short of staff.” He disclosed that the schools which were upgraded in 2005 up till now had not been provided with teachers and other facilities and the shortage of the teaching staff was being tackled through temporary arrangements.”

Farhad Ali Shah, Director FG schools (FDE), told Dawn that they had short listed 90 Matric Trained Teachers (MTTs) and 35 Graduate Untrained Teachers (GUTT) for recruitment and their induction would make the situation better.

Answering a query about the unavailability of headmistress in FGGMS New Shakrila, Director FG Girls Schools Attaullah explained that the posting to grade 17 or above was done by Education Ministry; therefore, it was out of his jurisdiction.

Ashraf Nadeem, Director Coordination and Administration FDE, said the creation of new posts in upgraded schools was the responsibility of the Finance Ministry and it took a lot of time. About the missing facilities, he explained that cut in education budget was the main hurdle.