• A report based on the monitoring of 154 government girls’ primary schools in 84 districts across Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, April 15: As much as 92% of the 154 government girls’ primary schools monitored in 84 districts in February were without cleaners while about three-fifths did not have peons and security guards, says a Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) report.

The report released Sunday says that information was withheld on the appointments of support staff by the administration of 57 schools. However, in schools that did share information, an average 10% vacancy rate was observed.

As for the teaching positions, the average vacancy rate was 9% in 142 schools that shared information. The average teacher-student ratio of 1:34 in the monitored schools appeared to be satisfactory.

A region-wise breakup showed that the lowest number of students-per-teacher (21) was in a school in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab followed with 27, 30 and 35 students-per-teacher. However, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), this number was 41 while in FATA it was 53 — higher than the government-set limit for primary schools which is 40 students-per-teacher.

More than half of the schools were without playgrounds while 51 had no arrangements for clean drinking water. Furthermore, 50 schools did not have proper seating for students while three-fourths of the monitored schools did not have staffrooms for teachers. On the other had, 43 schools lacked electricity connections and classrooms of 56 schools had no fans.

On a positive note, 95% schools were housed in proper buildings and 91% had boundary walls.  The condition of classrooms was also found to be satisfactory as more than four-fifths of the schools had classrooms that were clean, well-lit, had black/white boards and chairs and tables for teachers. In line with the government’s policy, all schools except for two in Punjab and one in Sindh were providing free textbooks to students.

Government oversight was observed to be quite low. During November 2011-January 2012, there were 79 visits made by government/elected officials to the monitored schools.

From among elected representatives, only one visit was made by an MPA while two by some other elected representatives. Executive District Officer/Education visited 28 schools while 48 visits were made by some other government officials.

Most of these visits were routine and monitoring visits while some were made for the purpose of supervision and checking the attendance of students and teachers.

To download complete report, click here