LARKANA: A government-run middle school, constructed in 1992 during the tenure of former chief minister of Sindh Jam Sadiq Ali, has been made dysfunctional only due to the utter negligence and lack of monitoring by the concerned department of education.
Reportedly, the school, located in Bago Junejo village of Kambar subdivision, was built by the efforts of Jam’s advisor Noor Nabi Junejo with the sole purpose to educate children of poverty-stricken families living in the region.
Despite the announcement by the former provincial government of Sindh that declared ’emergency’ in the education and health sectors, the authorities failed to achieve tangible results while the civil society, students and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) launched several protests in the recent past for immediate measures to upgrade and support education reforms.
The villagers claimed that the school was made operational for just four to five years, and then all faculty members and students left the school due to mismanagement, carelessness and incompetence of the officials of education department.
Meanwhile, the influential or rich people got admission of their children in private schools while the poor were left helpless.
The villagers further alleged that ‘thieves’ stole windows, equipment, doors, iron rods and furniture of the school while the remnant of the school building ‘curses’ the rulers.
“The area police did not take any action against them,” they said adding that nearly 200 to 250 students were forced to travel about 3 kilometres daily to get education from private schools in Kamber.
“Feudal lords do not want the children of peasants to get education,” they further said.
The Sindh government has initiated several reforms for education including increase in enrollment of students in the schools; however the facts reported do not support such claims.
USAID in collaboration with Sindh government intend to construct 106 schools, but only 34 have been constructed so far.
The villagers demanded the interim government to take a stern action against officers who were responsible for such negligence and ensure renovation, reparation and functionality of the school.
Published in Daily Times, July 4th 2018.