KARACHI, Dec 31: The Sindh Education Management Information System (Semis) has once again failed to finalize and publish the annual school census report 2003-04 in time.
Sources in the education department said the annual Sindh Education Profile 2003 - covering primary, secondary and higher secondary schools and colleges of the public and private sectors, and laying special emphasis on teachers, students, building facilities and equipment - was supposed to be finalized latest by the end of June 2004.
But, it could not be ensured due to the alleged non-serious attitude of the senior district educational officials. However, sources in the district education department maintained that the available strength of staff working on Semis was not enough to adequately carry out the job within a stipulated period.
In the meantime, the Semis had finalized the schedule for school census, 2004-05, which would include details pertaining to over 100 indicators as identified by the federal and provincial governments. The Sindh education department will observe Jan 29 as school census day, which was last year observed on March 31.
It was learnt that the unavailability of census data from districts was also discussed at a recently held departmental meeting. The EDOs from the defaulting districts were asked to provide the census data within seven days; however, that too did not help in expediting the data collection process, as four or five districts were still to furnish data.
It was a fact that a couple of districts failed to understand the sensibility required in preparing the education profile. "Data plays an important role in planning, and setting and achieving targets. But, it is the non-seriousness of some district officials that the report is being delayed. It is also likely that by the time the report is finalized, it would loose its significance and become inexact," apprehended a source.
The Semis established with foreign aid, under the federal government, started carrying out census activity in 1991. The 12th official report on government schools for 2002-03 was released in July last.
According to the report prepared by the Semis - based on field work carried out till March 2003 - the number of precarious government school buildings in the province had increased to 2,694.
Census reports normally provided an insight into efforts by the government or other organizations for development in any specific sector, said an academician.
As such, the Sindh educational profile also gave an opportunity to revisit the state of affairs in the educational sector, he said, adding that sometimes governments preferred to camouflage or suppress details by delaying or not making such reports public.
According to an official source, eight of 19 posts of district officers (grade 19) or deputy district officers (grade 18) under Semis had been filled-in by non-qualified persons.
Similarly, about 50 per cent of computer programmers and computer operators and majority of the posts of assistants and data entry operators were lying vacant at the district level.
When contacted, the Director of Semis, Prof Ilyas Soomro, said preparation of the census report had run into snags, but now things had almost been streamlined following the intervention of the new education secretary. "I am hopeful that the pending report would be finalized and released in Jan 2005," he added.
Mr Soomro informed that works pertaining to a fresh census (2004-05) would begin on January 1. Seminars would be held and workshops conducted for the staff concerned on different dates and places in the province, while 'Census Day' would be observed on Jan 29.
Officials in districts were required to collect and process data about educational facilities at their level, according to entries up to Jan 5. He said that census forms were required to be submitted at the Semis' district offices on Jan 29, which would ultimately be transferred to the Semis Headquarters in Karachi till midnight the same day.