SC seeks report on footpath school’s shifting

The Supreme Court has directed the Sindh education secretary to submit the government’s proposals to move a makeshift school, run by a non-governmental organisation for street children on a footpath in Clifton, to a nearby government school building.

While hearing suo motu proceedings on Saturday with regard to the closure of the makeshift school being run under the bridge near the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine, a three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar observed that street children should not be provided education on a footpath and should be accommodated inside a school building.

Senior counsel Salahuddin Ahmed, who had been appointed to visit the footpath school and examine the alternate arrangements being provided by the education department, filed his report in court mentioning that the ordinary strength of the footpath school is between 150 to 200 children, however, the school does not maintain any proper data on its students.

He submitted that although a sincere effort was being made to educate and train the children who study at the footpath school, it was being done in a relatively unstructured fashion due to organisational lack of capacity/training, the constraints of the venue and the type children being educated.

Ahmed pointed out during the time the children are at school, they are relatively safe from the evils that afflict street children, including physical and sexual abuse and drug use.

According to him, the alternate school proposed by the Sindh government is close enough and spacious enough to accommodate all the children of the footpath school, but only if the existing students are transferred to other nearby schools.

He further said that government-run schools in the area did not make any attempt to enrol the type of children who are attending the footpath school because these children would need specialised remedial teaching and training before they can fit into an ordinary school.

Ahmed, however, added that shifting the kids to a government school will not resolve the question of who will manage such a school thereafter and pointed out that a school constructed by the Sindh government cannot be transferred to private management, without proper checks and balances on the managers’ capabilities, capacity and transparency.

He said the issue of the school should be resolved by prioritising the interests of the children and without risking their return to the streets.

Syeda Anfas Ali, who is running the footpath school, submitted that she may be allowed to use the government school premises to provide education to the street children.

The court then directed the education secretary to submit proposals with regard to shifting the makeshift school to a nearby government school building.