LARKANA: Scores of students of the Government Primary School Imam Bux Jamali on Wednesday staged a demonstration in the union council Karani in Dokri subdivision against Larkana district education department over lack of resources and chronic absence of teachers. Reportedly, several villagers also joined the protest and termed the school “dysfunctional” for the last eight years due to problems including aging textbooks, broken furniture, dilapidated classrooms, and unavailability of electricity supply, dysfunctional toilets and only one teacher for more than 200 students of all the primary classes. They expressed profound concerns over the failure of concerned officials of the education department despite of their repeated complaints, and stated that no official had ever visited the school to analyse or address such issues. They accused the education department of committing a massive corruption and revealed that around Rs 22,000, which were being provided to each school annually through the School Management Committee (SMC) from the Sindh government under the supervision of the Reform Support Unit, were being looted by corrupt officers. “The funds should have been spent on new installations, repairs and maintenance, teachers and sweepers’ salaries, utility bills, stationery and uniforms,” they added. They responded to the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah’s assertion regarding the imposition of ‘education emergency’ in the province, and accused him of trying to gain political mileage over issue of illiteracy and it had nothing to do with the provision of essential resources to schools. They said that he had never bothered to visit any school in the region, despite of their several complaints to high-rank concerned officers. “Distributing free books using taxpayers’ money will never bring change as effective and efficient measures are required on the priority basis to address issues pertaining to education system,” they maintained. Meanwhile, the school’s teacher Maula Dad Dahar said that the furniture was plundered by villagers and he has been taking classes regularly, but did not seek assistance from officials of the education department to resolve such issues. Later, Dokri subdivision education officer Zahid Hussain Soomro vowed to appoint more teachers in the school as soon as possible. Published in Daily Times, September 27th 2018.