51% girls high schools without libraries

A report based on monitoring of 90 government girls’ high schools in 58 districts in February 2013

ISLAMABAD, 30th May 2013: Half of the 90 government girls’ high schools were without libraries for students and one-fourth did not have apparatus for science experiments says a Free and Fair Election (FAFEN) report.  

The report released on Thursday said that the concerned authorities should take measures to address the lack of these facilities in order to ensure quality education in government-run schools.

FAFEN governance monitors who visited 90 high schools in 58 districts also pointed out lack of attention towards extracurricular activities. Playgrounds were not available in 36% schools while 37% did not have services of a Physical Training Instructor (PTI).

Other non-teaching staff including security guards and sweepers was also not available as 27% and 23% of the monitored schools did not have them. However, peons were available in 97% schools.

Of the sanctioned 660 positions of non-teaching staff, 9% were lying vacant. Among regions, Punjab had the highest percentage of unfilled positions, 15%, followed by KP (8%) and Sindh (4%).

However, out of 2,183 sanctioned teaching positions, 11% were unfilled- Sindh (20%), KP (9%) and Punjab (5%).

Teachers’ attendance at schools was satisfactory as in 80 out of 90 schools the attendance was above 76% while 65 schools reported this high percentage of students’ attendance on the day of FAFEN observers’ visit.

On average the student per teacher ratio was 30, which is below the government set limit of 50 for high schools.

As for infrastructure, all schools were housed in proper buildings with 96% surrounded by boundary walls. Classrooms in 99% schools had black/white board, 91% had tables and chairs for teachers and 88% had benches for students. . Electricity connection was available in 94% schools while 91% had fans in all classrooms.

The government oversight was observed to be low as only 42 visits were made to 39 of the monitored schools during the quarter November 2012-January 2013. . The highest number of these visits were made by government officials (23), followed by Executive District Officer (EDO)/ Education and one by an elected representative.