'Floods destroyed 3,520 schools in Sindh'

As many as 3,520 schools have been destroyed by the ravaging floods in Sindh. Dr Warren Mellor, Director/Representative, Unesco while addressing a briefing on "Financing Quality Basic Education for All," organised by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILD&T) at a local hotel here on Monday.
"Besides, 1,503 schools have become non-functional due to occupation by the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 0.2 million primary students were also affected in the natural calamity, Mellor said, adding that there are fear that the primary level participation rate, survival rate and dropout rate would decrease."
He said the initial assessment indicated that there is a need of 3.545 billion for reconstruction of damaged private school, and Rs 4.359 billion for training textbook and other expenditure. Rupees 7.904 billion are needed for reconstruction of damaged private infrastructure only, he said. He suggested that the educational budget of the Sindh should be increased upto Rs 74.461 billion.
He recommended legislation to declare primary education free for masses as their fundamental human right. The provincial budget and expenditure should be increased to 4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and there is dire need for capacity development through training of teachers, appointment of executives on qualification criteria and strengthening accountability mechanism, he added.
Evaluating the importance of education sector in the country, Arshad Saeed Khan, Senior National Specialist for Education, Unesco said Pakistan has the second lowest in Gender Parity Index (GPI) and adult literacy after Afghanistan in South Asian countries. According to Human Development Report 2009 and Unesco Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report, Pakistan is placed at 141 in Human Development Index (HDI) with 54 percent literacy rate, he added.
"During 1996-97, the educational budget of the country was increased and it was 2.62 percent of GDP but now it has started declining, reaching 2.05 percent of GDP during 2009-10 fiscal year, he said, adding that World Development Indicators 2007 shows that Pakistan was spending 2.3 percent of the GDP on education sector, which was 10.09 percent of their total expenditure."
He said Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement (PSLSM) Survey 2008-09 said the literacy rate among the children above 10 years was 57 percent (48pc rural, 33pc female), 15 years was 54 percent (44pc rural, 28pc female), NER primary 57 percent (53pc rural, 48pc female), NER middle was 53 percent (46pc rural, 35pc female) and NER Matric was 12 percent (9pc rural, 7pc female). Meanwhile, the educational experts of various ranks have discussed rehabilitation of destroyed/damaged schools in the province.