Most primary schools are “functioning” without any system of monitoring and evaluation. Like many towns of Karachi, SITE Town also suffers from neglect on the part of the government. Most of the schools here do not even have the facility of safe drinking water for students, what to speak of secured and hygienic educational premises. Even the practise of ringing the school- bell has become extinct in many cases.
According to the data compiled by the EDO education, there are 53 boys and 18 girls primary schools in town, where 4047 male and 3711 female students are enrolled.
Parents who approached the teachers for admission of their children to some schools were denied access as the facilities were not enough even to cater to the needs of the students already admitted. Non-availability of drinking water and electricity, uncleaned lavatories and pending repair and whitewash are the common problems faced by the schools.
Absenteeism of teachers, shifting of teachers on detailment, holding of combined classes and inadequate ministerial staff are the issues that need to be urgently dealt with. Students are there to learn, but teachers are not available to teach them.
At the Govt Sewerage Farm Primary School, Rexer Line, Pak Colony, out of sanctioned staff of 7 for 70 students, normally three report, while others have been relieved for detailment at some other schools. Due to shortage of teachers, two or more classes are taken most of the time in one room by a single teacher. “Students keep coming one hour after the commencement of the classes,” said a teacher.
Electricity is disconnected, some of the rooms are in a precarious condition and broken boundary wall is broken. The absence of vigilance makes it easy for outsiders to trespass,” said an area resident. Two more schools are being run in the same premises.
At the AL-Ghazali Govt Boys Secondary School, the water supply system is completely in a mess. Filthy water is occasionally supplied from an underground tank for students and teachers of two schools. Subsoil water is brought from a nearby tank for day- to-day needs. The school was shifted to this KMC premises from North Nazimabad in 1979-80. “The boundary wall has collapsed, while a good part of the premises is occupied by encroachers who are ignored by the authorities for reasons best known to them”, said a an area resident.
The Jamia Masjid Warsi Primary School, which functions within the premises of the GBPS Band-e-Ali Mukhi and Sewerage Farm School No 2 in Union Council 2, presents another picture of neglect.
Two of the available teachers, siting besides each other in a room with about ten students, said that the school was shifted from Bara Board area recently and things were being put in order.
There are only two rooms and four teachers for a five-class school. Amenities are missing as usual. A Sindhi medium school- Govt Boys Primary School, Hub Dam, was shifted to the same premises in 1995-96. The school largely caters to Sindhi and Balochi speaking students. “Inadequate staff and furniture and unsafe teaching areas on the first floor are enough reasons to discourage the induction of students”, said a teachers, adding that a couple of students had recently fallen from the roof.
The condition of the Band-e-Ali Mukhi School and Sewerage Farm schools established in an old stone building and operating since 1930-35 is not different. Most of the classrooms are dilapidated and without doors and windows. The roofs have developed cracks.
At the Sewerage Farm School there are seven teachers for over 200 students. There neither electricity and nor lower staff. The students complain they have to sweep the floor and clean the furnitures as well.
Nazim of SITE Town, Amir Nawab Khan, said that the town could not take up the issue independently as there was an education department for the purpose.
“Despite the fact that we are not answerable for educational institutions’ affairs, we try to help them from time to time”, he said and added that the government had allocated Rs4000 per room for repair works at schools. The amount, he said, was still to be received.
He, however, deplored the conditions of educational institutions in his area and said that under the devolution programme, the affairs of schools and colleges should be handed over to the town and councils in the city. A senior academician said that the government should merge different schools operating in one premises, under one administration.