South district nominees vow to turn around state of education

Candidates contesting the July 25 general elections for different constituencies in District South discussed the sorry state of education in the area during a multi-party convention at the Arts Council on Thursday.

During the meeting organised by Alif Ailaan, a nonprofit working in the field of education, the nominees belonging to different political parties also presented their respective five-year plans for improving the state of education in the district.

The major issues of the educational landscape in the South district that were identified during the conference included availability of schools beyond primary level, quality of education and poor infrastructure.

The participants said that around 61 per cent of all the government schools in the district are primary level institutions, and that there are only 67 secondary schools and three higher secondary schools against 202 primary schools.

Therefore, they added, students graduating out of primary schools do not have enough institutions to attend post-primary level, and the lack of schools beyond the primary level explains why the enrolment rate drops after every level.

They referred to a steep drop in enrolment from 3,604 in class-X to 509 in class-XI. They said that of the 330 public schools in the district, some still lack basic facilities.

They stressed that provision of infrastructure and basic facilities is important to raise the attendance and interest of students as well as of teachers, ensuring better quality of education.

They lamented that 49 schools still do not have toilets, despite repeated attempts and promises by successive Sindh governments to provide basic facilities to all educational institutions across the province.

As a result, they said, the learning outcomes of children studying at schools in District South are negatively impacted, as demonstrated by standardised achievement tests at class-V and class-VIII levels.

The average mathematics and science scores for class-V are 24 each, while at class-VIII level they are 19 for math and 22 for science, disclosed the participants.

This can be attributed to the unavailability of science laboratories and adequate learning and training instruments at some schools, as well as vacant positions of secondary school teachers and senior secondary school teachers, the meeting was told.

The participants demanded a higher allocation for the education budget.

They also laid stress on the importance of timely disbursement and effective utilisation of the allocated funds to bring about a substantial improvement in the quality of education.

Every election candidate agreed on the demands, and put forward their own plan to turn around the state of education in the district. Some of the nominees vowed to send their own children to state-run schools if they are elected.

The event was attended by independent candidates Jibran Nasir and Ilyas Abbasi; the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Dr Arif Alvi, Khurrum Sher Zaman and Imran Ismail; the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s Mahfooz Yar Khan; the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s Syed Abdur Rasheed and Muhammad Hussain Mehnati; the Pak Sarzameen Party’s Fauzia Kasuri; the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Dr Afnan Ullah and Sheikh Javed; and the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Abdul Aziz Memon and Najmi Alam.