KARACHI, March 12: The planning and development department of Sindh has approached Chief Minister Sardar Ali Muhammad Khan Mahar, seeking funds for making functional 2175 educational institutions lying inoperative for years for want of teaching and other staff.

The buildings of educational institutions, that include 15 technical colleges, 33 colleges, 23 higher secondary schools, 55 secondary schools, 90 middle schools and 1959 primary schools, were constructed on the recommendations of the P&D department at a cost of Rs5 billion during the last one decade.

It would require around 12000 teaching and other staff incurring an annual expenditure of Rs526 million to run these institutions.

Provincial minister for P&D, Syed Shoaib Ahmed Bukhari, has moved a summery to the chief minister suggesting approval of funds to start academic activities at the above-mentioned institutions providing required staff and other facilities.

Besides lack of funds, other major reason of abandoning such a large number of educational institutions was the ban on fresh appointments, owing to which about 1834 more schools were closed down. The issue was recently raised in the Sindh assembly.

According to official statistics, currently the total number of teachers at different levels in the province is 147,016— 97,237 primary teachers, 9,691 middle school teachers, 29,297 secondary school teachers, 5, 106 higher secondary school teachers, 485 teachers at intermediate level, 4,640 teachers at the degree level, 456 at post-graduate level and 104 teachers at professional colleges. The gender-wise breakup shows that 99,555 are male and 47,461 are female teachers.

The statistics reveal that the number of educational institutions in the province has increased over the years, but there has been a decline in teachers’ strength. According to official data there were 98,279 primary teachers in 1997. The number rose to 100,236 in 1998 and 101,049 in 1999, but declined to 97,237 in 2001.

In 1997, the number of secondary school teachers was 30,864 and in 1998 it was 30,965 and 30,229 in 1999, but it declined to 29,297 in 2001. At the higher secondary level, the number of teachers in 1997 was 5,146, in 1998 it was 5490 and 5224 in 1999; it declined to 5106 in 2001.

The aggregate number of teachers at primary, middle, secondary and higher secondary levels was 143,627; it increase to 146,078 but declined to 145,449 in 1999 and to 141,331 in the year 2001.—PPI