Jamila Achakzai By
Islamabad : Most government schools and colleges in Islamabad have overcrowded classrooms, where the teachers struggle to deliver effective lessons to 50-60 children packed in like sardines.
However, some public sector educational institutions are an exception as the teachers outnumber students there.
Among them is the Islamabad Model College for Boys, H-9, which has seven teachers for only three B.Com Part-I students though the recommended capacity of a class is 40.
Things are little better in B.Com Part-II class, where seven students have seven teachers to take lessons from.
Ironically, the B.Com students have been scoring poor exam results for many years despite having more teachers than required. And even in some exams, none of the students got the passing marks.
Some teachers declare these small class sizes a waste of resources, especially in light of the presence of a proper public sector commerce college just a kilometre away.
“The three B.Com students of the H-9 college can be easily adjusted in the Islamabad Model College of Commerce, H-8/4, where the strength of B.Com class is around 150,” a college teacher told ‘The News’.
While revealing the running of many BA and BSc classes, too, far below the recommended capacity, he said around10 students were enrolled in the subjects of botany, zoology and geography and economics.
Another teacher claimed that things were no different at the nearby H-8 Postgraduate College, which, too, had unreasonably small class sizes in many courses.
He regretted that on one hand, the capital city’s most government educational institutions were short of teachers but on the other, they spent excessively to operate classes with fewer students than capacity.
“The number of teachers should match the class strength. The colleges should operate with the lower number of teachers in subjects, where the enrollment is low,” he said adding that the outnumbering of students by teachers is adversely impacting on the overall productivity of educational institutions.
The teacher criticised the top bosses of the Federal Directorate of Education for being involved in ‘internal politics’ rather than streamline or restructure educational institutions to improve their efficiency.
“Only the restructuring and revamping of the entire administrative setup of the FDE can reduce the excessive operating costs and increase the value of educational institutions,” he said.
Another college teacher called for the shifting of unnecessary staff members, especially teachers, from educational institutions to those, who actually needed them.
“There is a need for an end to unnecessary disciplines and subjects at educational institutions. The vacancies should be assigned to other subjects to meet the needs of students,” he said asking the education ministry to step in to check the waste of funds and human resources in the capital’s colleges.
Muslim pilgrims pray around the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque, in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca, during the annual...
An aerial view of Islamabad is seen in this undated image. — X/@Islamabadies/File— the report that the historical...
This representational image shows a burger and chips. — Unsplash/FileIslamabad : As Pakistan finds itself in the...
Firefighters douse the fire at a shopping mall in Karachi on November 25, 2023. — AFPThe leading Emergency Service...
Pakistan Academy of Letters building seen in this image. — APP/FileIslamabad: The Pakistan Academy of Letters has...
A young boy is riding a motorcycle with his father seated with him on the way to a road in Lahore in November 19,...