SHC orders inspection of schools in Karachi running under DMCs

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the district and sessions judges of all the districts of the Karachi division to conduct inspection of government schools running under the District Municipal Corporations (DMCs) and submit a report with regard to the number of students and status of school buildings.

The direction came on a petition with regard to the government schools’ condition being run by the DMCs in Karachi.

To a query with regard to situation of government schools in District Central, a counsel for the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) submitted that there were as many as 250 schools of different status including primary, secondary and higher secondary status, under the DMC Central. He said that all the 250 schools were smoothly working under the control of the DMC Central school director.

A division bench of the SHC comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Adnanul Karim Memon after hearing the arguments of the KMC’s counsel observed that judicial propriety demanded verification of such a statement as apart from the province, local councils were also providing education in the public sector.

The bench observed that the apex court had also issued several guidelines with regard to miserable conditions of government schools.

The high court directed all the district and sessions judges of Karachi to depute their respective judicial magistrates to visit the schools under the DMCs and submit their reports with regard to the number of students and status of school buildings.

The SHC observed that the deputy commissioners shall also join these visits.

The high court observed that the reports shall include video clips and photographs of school buildings.

The bench also directed the education directors of all the districts of Karachi to appear before the court along with complete break-up of the budget allocated and utilised during the last five years and the strength of teaching staff and criteria of their recruitment process.

The bench directed the education directors to assist the court as to whether they had recruited teachers during the last 10 years, and if they had, what the criterion of such recruitment was. The high court directed all the authorities concerned to submit a compliance report within four weeks.

It is pertinent to mention that the Supreme Court had taken a suo motu notice with regard to miserable conditions of government schools in the country and issued several directions for improving miserable conditions of schools, removal of ghost schools and penal action against responsible persons who had been receiving salaries and other perks without performing their duties.

The judicial officers who were appointed earlier to visit the Karachi government schools in 2013 had noticed lack of electricity, drinking water, washrooms and proper furniture besides need for maintenance and repair work as such work had not been done since long.