KARACHI, Oct 1: The city government has noted an increase of 349,000 enrolments in primary classes of government schools over a period of five months.

According to an official document, the highest increase of 31,318 students including 11,454 girls was registered in the schools of New Karachi Town while the lowest of 10,428 students including 1,885 girls was found in the case of North Nazimabad town schools.

The admission process was arranged twice (from April 1 to Aug 31 and from Sept 1 to Sept 10) for the session 2003-2004 in all towns of the city.

In addition to the routine admissions, educational supervisors and teachers were asked to visit houses in their areas to get maximum children enrolled. The exercise of filling admission forms at these houses and declaring such admissions confirmed yielded enrolment of about 44,821 boys and 21,589 girls.

During the 10-day special drive (literacy week) launched in September, the lowest enrolment of 45 girls and 1,083 boys was recorded in North Nazimabad Town while the highest enrolment of 5,688 boys was noted in Saddar Town and the highest enrolment of 3,453 was recorded in schools of Gadap Town.

The town-wise breakdown of the new enrolment in primary schools alongwith the literacy week admissions is as follows:

Orangi Town-24,839 (2,053); Lyari Town-28,124 (4,268); Shah Faisal Town-14,622 (3,507); Gulberg Town-14,741 (5,235); Gadap Town-30,682(6,486); New Karachi Town-31,318 (4,454); Keamari Town-21,159 (5,244); Landhi Town-18,454 (3,404); Baldia Town- 14,360 (3,386); Liaquatabad Town-11,308 (2,071); Korangi Town- 18,341 (3,133); North Nazimabad Town-10,428 (1,128); Gulshan Town-15,845 (4,651); Jamshed Town-14,418 (2,736); Site Town- 17,132 (1,610); Malir Town-20,854 (2,592); Bin Qasim Town-16,584 (3,746) and Saddar Town-25,855 (6,701).