The enrolment of girls students in the World Food Programme (WFP) assisted schools has been doubled during the last three years and registered a sharp rising trend, said a study conducted by a donor agency.
The WFP-assisted projects started in seven remote districts of NWFP for promotion of education. The international agency has been providing food assistance in form of edible oil to girls students every month in 826 selected girls' primary schools of the food insecure districts to improve access, retention and completion of girls' primary education.
The study had collected detailed data from all the assisted schools, which indicates that the enrolment of girls' students has almost doubled during the last three years in these schools as compared to the non-assisted schools.
It said that the assistance had successfully been contributed to increasing access, retention, completion of primary education for girls, reducing gender gap and generally enhancing demand for education in the remote areas.
The enrolment of girls' students increased from 45,630 in 2001-02 to 95,331 in 2004-05. The increase in enrolment is about 109 percent over a period of three years, as compared to the increase of 30 percent in non-assisted schools.
The average schools enrolment size increased from 55.2 to 115.4 (ie by 60.17) during the period from 2001-02 to 2004-05 in the assisted schools.
The average school enrolment size of non-assisted schools increased from 67.6 to 88.1 (ie by 20.43) only. The assisted schools have even started from a lower base as compared to non-assisted schools.
The study reveals that the basic facilities were essential for proper teaching-learning process. However, it said most of the assisted schools did not have even minimum basic facilities required, including furniture, water, toilets, electricity, boundary wall, adequate teachers etc, and the students face extreme difficulties and hardships.
It said that the provision of basic facilities was also essential to sustain the momentum gained through the oil assistance, bringing so many additional out-of-school children into school system.
According to the report, it was estimated that 8,316 schools were required about 1732 black boards; provision of water supply in 446 schools, toilets in 121 schools; electricity in 618 schools and boundary walls for 78 schools. For providing these facilities Rs 58.439 million were required.
The survey also indicates that 3333 students migrated from other schools to the WFP-assisted schools during the year 2004-05. It is only 3.5 percent of the total girls' enrolment of 95,331 in the assisted schools. The absenteeism of teachers was reduced and their regularity was reinforced with the incentive of edible oil.
The student-teacher ratio varied from school to school. On an average, the ratio is 55:1 for the 826 assisted primary schools in NWFP, which is far above the standard norm of 40 students per teacher. Many schools have only one teacher.
A single teacher has to take care of even 200 to 323 students in certain schools. The average student-teacher ratio is 37:1 at the provincial level.
There are only 1780 teachers working in 826 assisted schools looking after 97,872 students (both girls and boys). About 43 schools are without teachers and practically closed (29 in Kohistan, 13 in Swat and one in Dir Lower). It is estimated that 1116 additional teachers are required according to the criteria of one teacher for 40 students and a minimum of two teachers per school.
In certain areas local female teachers are not available and those coming from other areas are not provided adequate facilities and security. They are thus forced to leave or get transferred.