‘Every Third Child in Sindh is Out of School’

Every third child in Sindh is out of school even though school enrolment in Sindh is four per cent higher this year, said the education secretary. Of those listed as literate in the country, 33 per cent can read one sentence, 21 per cent can read a story and 27 can calculate two-digit subtractions while only 13 per cent can work on three-digit division problems.

With the present situation, it seems “highly challenging” to meet the Millennium Development Goals of the universal completion of primary education and elimination of gender parity in education, Naheed S Durrani, the secretary for the department of education said. According to the secretary, 85 per cent of the schools in Sindh were in a space of four or less rooms. Another 20 per cent do not even have a building and 60 per cent have no access to clean drinking water. Meanwhile, 61 per cent of the schools were working with just one or two teachers.

She supported the need for a balance in the standard of education between private and public schools and said that the decline began with the start of nationalization. “Private schooling is very expensive. Some years ago, I calculated it to be one-fourth of the budget of a double-income household with two children. Now I expect it to be a bigger chunk.”