KARACHI, Oct 7: The education department has spotted at least 90 primary schools in Karachi alone where teachers outnumber students while the number of such disproportionate schools is in their hundreds elsewhere in Sindh, officials say.

“Yes, I confirm that some 90 such schools are in Karachi and many more in the rest of Sindh as we have detected in our quest to rationalise the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) across the province,” Sabhago Khan Jatoi, Sindh education secretary, told Dawn.

He said the department had launched a campaign to rationalise the PTR in the province which was expected to conclude by the end of this month.

“We have spotted many schools where teachers are more than students while there is a large number of schools where merely one teacher teaches the whole primary school of five classes. And such mismanagement has to be rectified through the plan we have begun implementing,” said Mr Jatoi.

According to the plan all the 23 districts of Sindh have been asked to compile lists of schools and the school-wise PTR. After which the extra teachers would be withdrawn from schools and transferred to schools showing deficient PTR.

Sources in the provincial and city education departments gave examples of schools where more teachers are posted than the students. At one such school over 20 teachers are paid hundreds of thousands rupees while the number of pupils is fewer than the paid staff.

At another primary school over 30 teachers are there to teach about a dozen students.

According to education department officials, thousands of appointed teachers draw regular salaries for teaching no one or pupils fewer in number than them.

“Across the province, there are about 100,000 teachers employed with the primary schools out of which at least 30 per cent are paid for doing nothing,” said an official.

Mr Jatoi, however, said the department had planned to use all the primary schoolteachers in accordance with the rationalisation plan with a ratio of 1:30.“We are taking steps to maintain a ratio of one teacher for 30 students in every school,” he said.

According to him, the department would soon employ some 15,000 teachers for primary, middle and secondary schools who, along with the existing teachers, would be used to improve the educational standard in Sindh.

Officials said the disproportionate deputation of teachers across the province had many factors, with political and feudal influence being on the top.

“A large number of schools have been established in the province only to provide jobs to people recommended by the influential people, which also cost the people in the areas where schools are needed but the funds are transferred to other locations,” said an official.