KARACHI, Sept 8: In Singo Lane, Lyari, there is a building with four schools in the same structure.

Not too far away, there are eight schools in one building — four schools run in the morning and four in the evening. “With the increase in population and demand for more schools, you now find a number of schools in one building. This means that classes can be cramped and there is no playground for the children in the building,” says a resident. The Nazim of UC-9, Lyari, Habib Hasan, who is also a member of the school managing committee, pointed out another anomaly. He conducted a survey of 20 government schools in his area. He came across not only “ghost schools and ghost teachers,” but also schools where there were more teachers than students or an unbalanced teacher-student ratio. He said that Shaheen Higher Secondary School had five children and 17 teachers and there was another school where there were 12 teachers and only 25 children.

“In these and several other government schools, teachers arrive at 9:30am and leave well before school hours. That is why few parents send their children to study there.” In Singo Lane Primary School, one of the four schools in one building, conditions are the reverse. Parents insist on admission of their children to this school where classes start and end in time; where teachers teach well and are regular. This is because the teachers here have been trained for five years by the Teachers’ Resource Centre which has tried to turn this into a model school. However, there are too many students. Some 357 students have been divided into 11 sections and study in five classrooms. In other words, there are two sections studying in each of the four classrooms; and in the fifth classroom there are three sections. The school has only 10 teachers of which two are on leave. Ms Mumtaz, who has 110 children in her class, says she feels “unwell” because of the pressure. The headmistress, Tayyaba Siddiqua, points out that four teachers left two years ago, but nobody has come in their place. She adds: “Teachers don’t like to work in Lyari schools, particularly in a school which has too much work.” One positive development, though, is that this school, one of the 300 or so schools in Lyari, has received a grant of Rs90,000 to improve conditions at the school. This money on the World Bank’s insistence has been handed over to the school managing committee comprising the headmistress, three teachers, four parents, four social workers and the chairman of the local Zakat committee.

“Earlier when funds were managed by the education department they were misspent. Now every penny is being well used,” says Nazim Habib Hasan. The school is having some much-needed fans and lights installed and new doors and windows to replace the old termite-ridden wooden doors; its walls are being white-washed. However, given the long neglect of the school, even this grant is “too little” to meet all its needs. In the government’s effort to promote and expand primary education, there are some hitches. Lyari, one of the five areas declared “primary education free zones,” received 20,000 books to be given to deserving children. However, the Nazim points out that 10,000 books of Lyari’s share were taken away and given to Gulberg Town. Half of the 10,000 books allotted were in Sindhi.

“Of the 4,000 books we got, about half are not complete sets. Poor parents come to us demanding books. They get angry when turned away. They don’t understand that Lyari did not get its full share,” says the Nazim. Headmistress Ms Siddiqua corroborates his remarks. She says her school got only 30 sets of books instead of 300 sets that her school needed; besides, half of the sets were “incomplete.” Although the primary schools in Lyari are not meant to charge fees, the schools take money from parents on different heads. According to the Nazim, some schools are taking Rs6 as “Girls’ fund,” Rs5 for Parents Teachers Association and Rs10 for development. What is more, he says, the City District Government School is charging Rs150 annually from children attending the primary section.