KARACHI, Nov 23: In a attempt to promote primary education, the government is providing government schools with free textbooks for needy children. However, the number of such sets of books being supplied is “too small”.

This is what Naseem Begum, the headmistress of the second shift in Rana Academy, had to say. On October 28, she received 330 sets of books from the Sindh Education Department for distribution to 25 primary schools in UC 8, the Urdu Bazar area. “This means that each school will receive 13 free sets of books or just two to three sets for each class. This is insufficient. Most children who attend the schools are from the working class. How do we choose whom to give?”

In schools of Lyari a similar pattern is observed, though Lyari has been declared as one of the five “education free zones” of Karachi. Here Aisha Masjid School, where 250 children study, received only 15 sets of books from the government for distribution. Similarly Mirza Azam Khan with 162 children got 40 sets of books and Ibrahim Alibhai No 2 school with 137 children, just nine sets of books.

“This is what you find in all the 18 primary schools of UC 9,” claims the Nazim, Habib Hassan.

He pointed out that the city government schools had not received any books. “In New Kumharwara Girls Primary School 638 children study, but it has been ignored.”

He added that the EDO (education) recently asked the principals of primary schools in Lyari to collect free sets of books from the education office on M.A. Jinnah Road. However, each school is being offered only a small number of free books.

The UC Nazim recalled that some six months ago when free books were earmarked for Lyari, about half were supplied instead to schools in Gulberg. “What is more, 60 per cent of the books we received were in Sindhi, while we have only a few schools in the Sindhi medium. In all, each school received only 15 to 20 free sets of books. Why then call Lyari an education-free zone?” he asks.

One teacher who has expressed satisfaction over the scheme is Kausar Sheikh, who teaches in Government Farooqi School, one of the eight primary schools in one boundary wall near Urdu Bazar.