SHC seeks details about efforts for reopening schools

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday directed the school education secretary to apprise the court of how many schools had been closed in the province and what efforts were being made to reopen them.

The direction came on identical petitions filed by rights activists and organisations seeking the implementation of the Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2013.A counsel for the petitioners informed a division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar that there were various provisions that required immediate attention of the provincial government for the smooth implementation of the law in letter and spirit.

He pointed out that the Section 7 of the Act made it obligatory for the provincial government and the local authorities to provide funds for implementing the provisions of the law.

The counsel said the government was not providing sufficient funds to the public schools for quality education and better infrastructure. He requested the high court to order a report from the education department about the allocation of funds for the implementation of the law.

The school education secretary filed a report in compliance with the court directives. However, the bench was not satisfied with the report and inquired the secretary if the private educational institutes were offering free education to 10 per cent of their students in accordance with the law.

The high court observed that hundreds of schools in Larkana were closed down and teachers were getting salaries for no work. The bench observed that the condition of public schools was not satisfactory and asked the secretary to make concrete efforts instead of mere paperwork so that children of the poor could benefit from the law and receive free and quality education.

The SHC asked the school education secretary how many schools had been closed in Sindh and what efforts were being made to reopen such schools. The court also directed the secretary to submit the status of schoolteachers employed in those schools and whether they were being paid salaries or not.

The secretary mentioned in the comments that the Sindh government was providing free education to 4.5 million children in the province and the schoolchildren between five and 16 years studying in public schools were also being provided free textbooks and their examination fee was waived.

He submitted that the provincial government was taking several steps for enrolling the out-of-school children through different education projects with collaboration with Unicef, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other entities.

The school education secretary had earlier informed the SHC that the education department had completed the framework for implementing the law in letter and spirit. He said various schemes were in progress to improve the infrastructure of the public schools and funds had recently been allocated for the purchase of furniture.

He had submitted that steps would be taken to improve the quality of education, curricula and textbooks, as well as governance and human resource management at the schools. Regarding the security of the schools, the secretary had said that the government was making efforts to provide foolproof security to all the public and private schools.