Almost three-fourth (72 percent) of Girls Middle Schools in the country do not have any security arrangements, according to a sample survey carried out by FAFEN Education Institution Monitor. The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) survey was based on the monitoring of 106 Girls Middle Schools across Pakistan during October 2010.
FAFEN Governance Monitors visited 43 Girls' Middle Schools in 28 districts of Punjab, 26 schools in 17 districts of KP, nine schools in many districts of Balochistan, 26 schools in 17 districts of Sindh and one school each in a Fata agency and ICT to monitor the state of physical infrastructure, attendance of teachers and students, staffing, facilities and funds.
No security guard was present at 72 percent of the monitored schools, 100 percent schools in Balochistan, 73 percent in Sindh and KP and 63 percent in Punjab. Security arrangements for female students and teachers are imperative in view of militancy and precedents of attacks on school buildings by militants.
While the monitored schools are maintaining rudimentary physical infrastructure, significantly large proportion of schools were without proper buildings, furniture, required facilities for staff and students and recreational services. As many as 48 percent schools had no staff room for teachers while 45 percent lacked furniture in the classrooms. The facility of clean drinking water was also not available in 38 percent of the monitored schools across the country. The situation is reported to have been worst in Sindh, where 54 percent of schools lacked clean drinking water, followed by 44 percent schools in Balochistan.
Half of the schools monitored were without a playground, with regions registering almost a similar trend - 56 percent schools in Balochistan, 54 percent in KP, 50 percent in Sindh and 47 percent in Punjab. On average, 15 percent of teaching posts and 13 percent non-teaching posts in Girls' Middle Schools, monitored nation-wide were vacant.
According to the data collected by FAFEN, one teacher was available for 27 students on average in observed schools nation-wide. However, even a lower ratio was seen in Balochistan where a teacher was available for every 43 students. Interestingly, nation-wide, 68 percent monitored schools reported maximum (76 to 100 percent) teacher attendance on the day of monitoring. Around 71 percent of schools reported maximum student attendance. During the monitoring of girls' schools, transparency surfaced as a major issue. More than 83 percent of schools observed in the month of October 2010, declined to share budgetary details. No school in Balochistan, Fata and ICT shared the information.
According to budgetary details provided by 18 observed schools nation-wide, government spends Rs 3,943 on each student of the schools. In KP, per student spending is Rs 5,965, followed by Punjab and Sindh where Rs 3,791 and Rs 2,379 respectively were available to be spent on each enrolled student.