Moalims

ISLAMABAD: While the government has successfully forced the private educational institutions to withdraw fee hike amid public outcry, it has yet to pay attention to public schools which lack even basic facilities like clean drinking water and toilets despite being directly managed by the federal and provincial governments.

Experts believe that parents were justified in protesting against exorbitant fee raise by private schools but they also suggest that the government should improve public sector schools to provide a better option to the students afflicted by the business-oriented educational institutions.

However, the data compiled by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training depicts a grim picture of government schools with more than 42,000 public sector primary schools being deprived of clean drinking water and an equal number operating without toilets.

The official data shows that the number of schools without clean drinking water has increased significantly during last few years. Even in the capital Islamabad, there are 14 primary schools where clean water is not available for pupils. The data has been released by Academy for Education Planning and Management, Ministry of Federal Education, in its annual year book.

According to statistics, the number of government primary schools without clean drinking water was 34,890 across the country in 2009 and despite claims of the federal and provincial governments of increased funding for education, the situation worsened in 2014 with more schools adding to the list of those deprived of potable water. Now the number stands at 42,009, as per 2014 statistics.

Overall in Pakistan there are currently 75,631 primary schools which had clean drinking water while in 2009 there were more schools (79,745) which had the facility. Even in Islamabad, the number of schools without clean water has gone up to 14 in 2014 while the figure was five in 2009.

The province of Sindh ruled by the Pakistan People’s Party has the highest number of schools without clean drinking water with the alarming figures of 21,771. In 2009 the number of such schools was 12,957. More than half of the all public sector schools in the province have no clean drinking water, the official data shows. Only 20,560 schools have potable water as compared to 21,771 schools without the facility.

In Pakistan’s largest province Punjab, which is being ruled by the PML-N, the situation has slightly improved as compared to 2009. The province had 6,615 schools without clean water in 2009 but the number of such schools has reduced to 2,229 in 2014. However, the province also had witnessed decrease in number of schools which offer the facility of clean water. In 2009 there were 38,096 schools in Punjab with the facility but in 2009 only 36,198 schools are left with the clean water.

In the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there are 7,680 primary schools where the pupils can’t drink clean water. The number of such schools was 7,291 in 2009 when the province was being ruled by Awami National Party.

The number of schools where the facility is available has increased to 14,982 in 2014. In 2009 the province had only 12,307 such schools.

Surprisingly, the province of Balochistan has witnessed dramatic decrease in number of schools with drinking water facility.

In 2009, as many as 6,553 schools had the clean drinking water while five years later only 1,021 schools are left with water. It is unclear what happened to the rest of 5,532 schools which previously had the water facility.

The official data shows that the impoverished province, ruled by a PML-N led coalition government, now has 4,766 schools without drinking water facility. In 2009, the province had 3,700 such institutions.

As per data, in Fata clean drinking water is not available in almost 60 percent schools.

As many as 2,099 schools lack this facility while only 1,437 schools enjoy the clean water.

News Reference