RECENTLY I happened to visit the school I matriculated from. It is a government school situated in Shah Faisal Colony, Block 1, Karachi, which was once a thriving institution with hundreds of students proudly willing to seek admission there. But now the school presents a deserted look with a handful of students, most of whom are unmotivated and even without uniform and educational ethics.

On inquiry I was informed that students nowadays prefer seeking admissions to private schools though the educational environment provided there in no way matches the environment and expertise one can find in government schools. Lest it be misunderstood, I must hasten to add that most private schools are housed in buildings that are utterly inappropriate for learning environment as students can hardly enjoy any mobility and remain cooped up in congested classrooms with sometimes no assembly and games facilities.

Government schools are built with a purpose to cater to all the educational and physical needs of students and teaching staff.

Moreover, teachers in government schools must have gone through the required professional teaching courses before they are appointed, but the situation in private schools is quite different where, let alone the teaching expertise, teachers are preferably appointed not because how best they teach but how least they demand to be paid.

To my utter surprise, I even learnt that in some government schools of the colony there were only 20 students on roll against a teaching staff of 35 which usually results in teachers having nothing to do except sitting in staffrooms discussing some personal and political matters.

On request, I was allowed to conduct the most senior class of the school and I was once again startled to find out that students were not dull at all as it is generally believed about the students who end up being admitted to government schools.

Government schools have no doubt produced many exceptionally brilliant figures who have served at several important positions from simple office to the parliament and undoubtedly, if properly nurtured and prevented from being politicised, our government school students can once again repeat the history.

Now the main concern of our government should be that how we can rehabilitate our state schools which now stand so deserted. The government should be keen on knowing the reasons why our students are headed for private schools, though, there they are supposed to pay a hefty amount every month and yet all they get is nothing more than a load of books and an overnight homework.

Just because of indifferent attitude shown by government schools, many so-called private schools have sprung up at every nook and corner of our societies which are only minting money in the name of English-medium education.

I would request the authorities concerned to look into this matter and make sure that more and more students are convinced to seek admission to government schools which are built for the very purpose of education by engaging students in all sorts of curricular and extracurricular activities and, above all, by employing all possible ways and means for the speedy recovery of our educational assets which are none other than our students.

TK Karachi