Along any heated and indignant political issue in this country, one must not lose track of the real matters at that hand that we can actually work on. Sindh is the home to the country`s largest city and itself is the 2nd largest province and accordingly it should be at a high status in every sector but unfortunately it lags in the most basic one that is quality education.
Karachi alone is an unconditional victim of the ‘Parchi’ system, open cheating, historical syllabus and student mafia as well. Education is the sector that if not paid attention to can lead to horrific results for the country and the whole nation suffers the consequences. Unfortunately, most of the population of the province is at the brink of poverty for which government schools are established for essential basic education for free for enrolled children but the conditions of these institutes have never been this worse. One can only be shocked to see the trends that are being followed in this education mafia.
The problem narrows down to the people responsible for education and providing the education. The government does expenses no doubt; Sindh government expends 22% of the total budget on education with almost Rs. 117 billion set for education and educational reforms but what use of money when there is no accountability in the system? In 23-24 districts of the province there are almost 52,201 primary, main elementary, secondary, and higher secondary schools in accordance with the 2012-2013 educational information with about 4.38 million enrolled children. The most intriguing fact is that out of all the schools almost 88% are primary which constitutes 75% of the total budget set for education.
With this much expenditure, one can eagerly expect some year to year improvement but the funniest fact is that a large number of these schools are either closed without notice or there is no real presence of teachers who are nowhere to be found but surprisingly their bank balance keeps increasing.
While the Sindh government proudly claims on their ability of providing a qualified teaching staff, we must also look into the figures of almost 5000-7000 teachers that are not eligible for the post and are there just because of political influence. Feudalism plays its own part in occupying government schools and label it under their rule without any legal authority. The government should strictly prohibit such acts and keep a constant check and balance on our educational system as unfortunately if this continues then the current figures will drop below the line.
The government is provided to put the National Testing Service (NTS) to good use and evaluate the teaching staff through merit status and produce some concrete educational policies that can bring private as well as government schools level to that of an equal status. Regular checkup is essential with mandatory punishment for those who refuse to go by the rules and harass educational system and its personal.
