KARACHI, July 21: The number of government run schools run in precarious buildings has increased to 2,694 in the province, revealed a recently released official data.

Of the 44,149 schools up to the higher secondary level, only 7,889 (18 per cent) are in satisfactory condition, as per government criteria, while 15,510 school buildings need repairing.

As many as 5,624 government schools lay closed - 203 schools in urban areas and 5,421 in rural areas - due to non-availability of teaching staff, enrolment or other facilities; 38,235 schools were functional, and 290 were without sanction of employees.

The official data on government schools was released in the shape of Sindh Education Profile for 2002-03 at a meeting of representatives of international donor organisations and the Sindh education department the other day.

The report was the 12th of its kind, prepared by the Sindh Education Management Information System (SEMIS), based on field work carried out till March 2003 for school census.

According to figures, the number of unsafe school buildings was 2,471 in 2001-02, up from 1,703 in 1999-2000. According to the report, 36,677 schools did not have electricity, while more than 17,200 were without basic facilities like potable water and boundary walls.

As far as advanced facilities were concerned, only 1,030 had laboratories, 1,116 had libraries, and 26,394 were without playgrounds. There were a total of 15,096 schools, including 617 in urban areas, which conducted classes in the open air, and had no building or were functioning in rented buildings.

With regard to enrolment, the report mentioned that there were 3,283,986 students including 1,249,348 female students, enrolled from primary to higher secondary classes at government run institutions. The enrolment of primary school was recorded at around 2,518,001 students including 932,097 girls.

As many as 138,782 teachers including 44,050 female teachers, were employed for the institutions. There were 95,331 teachers for primary schools and 9,492 for middle schools.

There were a total of 40,121 primary schools, 2,373 middle ones, 1,504 secondary, and 151 higher secondary schools in the province. A total of 5,998 institutions existed in urban areas, while another 38,151 in the rural areas.

There were 3,953 schools with Urdu as the medium of instruction, 38,646 with Sindhi medium, 97 with English medium, and 1,451 with mixed mediums. As many as 42,988 schools were run in the morning shift, and 1,161 in the evening shift, said the census report.

A maximum of 3,765 schools existed in district Mirpurkhas, 3,612 in Tharparkar, 3,533 in Khairpur Mirs, 3,505 in Hyderabad, and 3,314 in Karachi. The maximum enrolment of 563,215 students was recorded at Karachi, while it was 316,274 in Hyderabad and 273,498 in Larkana.

The report further revealed that on average the dropout rate of primary classes was 13 per cent in the case of boys of urban areas, and 27 per cent in boys of rural areas. While, the dropout rate of girl students in urban and rural primary schools, was recorded at 11 and 29 per cent respectively.