KHAIRPUR: A multi-party convention, organised by Alif Ailaan and Sindh Education Alliance, on Friday discussed the deteriorating state of education across government-run schools in Sindh.
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) candidate for PS27 Maulana Abdullah Abbasi, independent candidate for PS26 Shehnaza Shaikh, Advocate Mirzan Nasir along with parents, youth activists and civil society members of the national and provincial assemblies in Khairpur attended the convention.
During the convention, analysis of the educational landscape in Khairpur revealed that the availability of schools beyond primary access, gender disparity and poor quality education are three most important factors contributing to failing education standards in Khairpur.
As per Pakistan District Education Rankings 2017, released by Alif Ailaan, Khairpur ranks 104th nationally and 15th provincially on Education Score (that measures learning, retention and gender parity) with the retention score as low as 44.1 percent and learning score at 31.86 percent.
Out of 3290 public schools in the district, 2966 (90 percent) schools are primary schools whereas the remaining 324 schools provide secondary and primary education. For every 16 primary schools, there is only 1 middle school.
The disparity is worse for girls from initial stages as there are only 768 primary schools for them compared to 2198 schools for boys, and the difference is further accentuated at higher schooling levels.
On the infrastructure end of issues, schools without basic facilities run in thousands despite repeated promises and attempts by government officials, politicians and successive education ministers to provide basic infrastructure, facilities and furniture in every school.
1148 schools are without electricity, 1223 without water, 933 without a boundary wall and 525 without toilets. To enroll in more girls in public schools, to provide child-friendly environment to students and for parents to trust the public school system, it is necessary to ensure that infrastructural problems are fixed at the latest because this does help in increasing attendance and interest of students and teachers alike.
At the same time, the issue of hundreds of partially and permanently dysfunctional, shelter-less and one-room schools also needs to be tackled.
These factors have negatively contributed to poor learning outcomes of students. According to the SAT results, students of class 5 and 8 in Khairpur have scored less than 40 in language, maths and science subjects. Given that only 48 schools in the whole district have science labs and 3224 schools do not have a library can explain the disappointing scores.
All participants agreed to commit to a Charter of Demands that was based on the demands of parents, teachers and community members in Khairpur to have the schools and quality of education improved in their respective constituencies in the coming months.