Current Affairs
Lack of facilities: kids forced to leave govt school in Mardan
MARDAN: Lack of educational facilities in Government Primary School Bijli Ghar of District Mardan pushing the parents to either enroll their kids to private schools or stop their schooling.
As per details, the government-run primary school for boys located at Bijili Ghar Union Council has only three rooms and three teachers for more than 100 students. The students and staff do not have the facilities of toilets, classroom, clean drinking water and furniture.
Recently, the parents and locals accompanied by the local government representatives had staged a protest demonstration demanding the upgradation of school building and other facilities, but their voice yet to be heard.
Dr. Naeem – local leader of the PTI and former councilor – said, the school was having two room, third one was recently constructed with the directions of Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Iftikhar Mashwani.
He added, strength of the students is directly proportional with facilities in the schools and proficiency of teachers. This school neither have facilities nor capable teachers.
“We have recently requested to the education department to provide us teachers but no one is listing,” said the ruling party local leader.
There are more than 1425 primary schools in the Mardan District out of which 812 for boys and 614 for girls, shows data of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Department. The data futher shows that only two schools are non-functional.
The UNICEF data shows, Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children (OOSC) with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16, representing 44 per cent of the total population in this age group. In the between 5 to 9 age group, more than 5 million children are not enrolled in schools and the number doubles after primary-school age. Similarly, with 11.4 million adolescents between the ages of 10-14 not receiving formal education.
Nearly 10.7 million boys and 8.6 million girls are enrolled at the primary level and drops to 3.6 million boys and 2.8 million girls at the lower secondary level.
Dr. Naeem said, MPA Iftikhar Mashwani recently visited the school and directed the Sub-Divisional Officer of education department to immediately construct new washrooms in the school, and there is any issue of funding they let him know.
