RAWALPINDI, March 24: As many as 56 schools in the district are not functioning for want of teachers, Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani said here on Monday.

These schools, constructed several years ago, are yet to register a single student.

Talking to this reporter, he said previous governments, in order to gain political mileage, had got these schools constructed without fulfilling the official requirements.

“The staff strength of these schools had not been sanctioned at that time, due to which these institutions could not be made functional despite spending precious public money,” the Nazim said.

Mr Kiani said the district government aimed at making these institutions functional within a year. He said no additional staff would be recruited for these schools, rather the staff available with the education department would be readjusted to meet the requirements for making them functional.

The district government had late last year partially filled over 2,000 teachers’ vacancies in the district. He said his administration had set itself the target of achieving 100 per cent enrolment by the end of this year.

“Ninety per cent work on this project has already been completed,” he added.

He said economic compulsions had been identified as a major cause for the dropout of children from schools.

“Therefore, we specifically plan to address this issue and would be looking at creating opportunities for lessening the cost of education,” he added.

Besides, providing free education to these children at government-run schools, the district government would provide them free books for which a book bank was being set up with the assistance of philanthropists, he said. Steps are being taken to see that once registered students do not drop out again, he added.

“We are also working at motivating parents of these children to keep them at school, by apprising them about the significance of education and the ruinous results of keeping their children ignorant,” he said.

Mr Kiani said parents were also being urged to cut their expenditures and manage to get their children’s schooling up to at least class five.

“We would like to convey them the message that children should not be deprived of this basic right just on the excuse of paucity of resources,” he added.

He said the target of 100 per cent enrolment had been set with the objective of providing at least primary education to every child in the district.

According to some enrolment statistics of children in the school-going age, some 37 per cent boys and 55 per cent girls were not enrolled.

He said getting education would not only be beneficial for illiterate children, but would also have a positive impact both at the district and national level.

He said the district government was cognizant of the fact that literacy played a vital role in the development of any nation.