Majority of government boys' primary schools do not have services of sanitary and support staff, said a report of FAFEN Education Institution Monitor, issued here on Thursday. It said that as many as 94 percent of monitored schools did not have a serving sanitary worker, 81 percent were without security guards and 70 percent did not even have a peon. Non-teaching staff is important for providing support and assistance in the management and maintenance of schools.
FAFEN Governance Monitors visited 109 government boys' high schools in 72 constituencies across the country in March 2011. 51 schools were monitored in 29 districts of Punjab, 31 in 21 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, six in as many districts of Balochistan, 18 schools in 13 districts of Sindh, one in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and two schools in as many districts of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
In the monitored 109 schools, 102 lacked a sweeper, 88 did not have a security guard, and no peon was appointed in 68 schools. Despite this lack of sweepers and peons in most of the monitored boys' primary schools, 81 percent of the schools had clean classrooms. This suggested that the responsibility of keeping the classrooms clean was taken up either by the teaching staff or transferred to students. Similarly, non-availability of security guards is a serious safety concern in the light of the prevailing law and order situation.
General facilities for students were lacking in the monitored schools. About half (49.5 percent) of the schools lacked basic furniture, ie chairs and tables for students, 75 percent did not have a playground for the students and 39 percent lacked arrangements for clean drinking. Facilities for teachers were also observed to be missing in many schools as insufficient basic furniture was found in the classrooms of more than one fourth (27 percent) of the monitored boys' primary schools, while 78 percent did not have a staff room for teachers.
Despite the above-mentioned discrepancies, almost all the schools (94 percent) were housed in a building and 80 percent had a boundary wall around them. Electricity connections were available in about three fourths (74 percent) of the schools while fans were available in the classrooms of 66 percent schools.
A lower student-teacher ratio in the class allows better co-ordination between teachers and students, but the student-teacher ratio in almost all the schools in the monitored regions was quite high. The highest student-teacher ratio was observed in KP, where one teacher was responsible for an average of 43 students. The average student-teacher ratio in the monitored government boys' primary schools remained high at 39:1.
The high student-teacher ratio, vacant posts, unavailability of clean drinking water, furniture and other facilities can be related to lack of government oversight as only 77 visits were made by government/elected officials to the 109 monitored schools during the quarter, December to February 2011 inclusive. No visit by EDO Education or any government/elected personnel was made to the monitored school of Islamabad Capital Territory in the observed quarter.
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