Mithi: The Tharparkar district has the highest number of closed schools as compared to other districts of Sindh, says an empirical analysis of education data and indicators.
“Tharparkar district has highest number of primary schools as compared to any other district, but also tops in closed and dysfunctional schools across the province of Sindh,” it emerged from the analysis.
“The education authorities have not paid any proper attention to education and have even not made any school-mapping. Most of the girls’ schools are closed and others have no proper facility. Parents who are willing to invest in education send their kids to different schools in semi urban areas like Mithi, Diplo, Chachro, Islamkot and other areas,” the empirical analysis said suggesting the strong need for improving the access and quality of education in the district.
The analysis was presented at a one-day Education Convention, organized jointly by District Education Department, Reform Support Unit and District Development Association Tharparkar on Wednesday that discussed school-related hurdles, way forward and mainstreaming out of school children in the district.
Tharparkar, the largest desert area of Pakistan, comprises of seven tehsils i.e. Nagarparkar, Diplo, Chachro, Islamkot, Kaloi, Dahali and Mithi.
The analysis said that climate and socio-economic conditions have largely affected primary education in Tharparkar region.
The issues which are mainly affecting primary education in district Tharparkar are related to community, school and administration. Lack of community/parents’ interest and involvement in education and school matters is the source of the poor enrollment and low retention of children in the schools. Parents and teachers’ committees/School Management Committees (SMCs) are almost non-functional due to lack of interest of relevant authorities, the analysis revealed.
Another barrier is poverty and economic related issues of the communities. Almost 90% remote rural communities are living below the poverty line. Rain-fed agriculture and livestock is the main economic/livelihood source of the poor population of Thar Desert area. The main factor behind the child labor in district Tharparkar is poverty. The children are engaged in providing support services to their families during the sowing and reaping seasons. Child labor is more common among the poor and lower castes of the area. Seasonal migration is also one of the factors behind low primary education. The poor and labor-intensive communities usually migrate to barrage areas during the dry spells in the district. This migration is usually temporary as most of the migrated communities return to their villages whenever it rains in Tharparkar.
Despite impressive economic progress, Sindh’s education indicators are very low. As per report of UNICEF (Sate of Children in Pakistan- 2015), two thirds of women and one third of people above the age of 10 in Sindh are illiterate. Approximately 30% of school-age children – approximately four million children aged 5 through 12 – are not in school. There is a large gap between the enrollment rates of boys and girls, though both are low. Learning outcomes in the province are also unacceptable. According to the ASER study (2011), 4 million (2.5 million girls) students are out of schools and this figure is increasing. Out of 47,557 schools, 5,229 (11%) are closed and 8,280 (17%) are shelter-less schools. The performance of the education sector regarding learning outcomes in the province is very discouraging. As per the recently released report by the South Asian Forum for Education Development (SAFED) in rural Sindh, 67% of those who do attend school cannot read sentences in Urdu or Sindhi, 66.5% cannot read sentences in English, and 73% cannot do simple two-digit subtraction sums. According to the Alif-Ailaan report for 2015-2016, out of 151 districts of Pakistan Tharparkar district has been ranked 121 in school infrastructure, school facilitation and dropout, whereas in province it ranked 21 out of 24 districts. According to Primary School Infrastructure facilities 2015-2016, Tharparkar ranked 114 out of 151 districts and 112 out of 155 districts in year 2016-2017. In middle school infrastructure facilities year 2015-2016, Tharparkar ranked 140 out of 151 districts and 128 out of 155 districts in 2016-2017. The Baseline report conducted in five union councils of taluka Mithi, Tharparkar by District Development Association Tharparkar- DDAT (an NGO) in May 2018 depicts that 15,861 children (7,237 boys and 8,624 girls) are out of schools in five union councils i.e. Malanhore Vena, Bhakou, Mithrio Bhatti, Vejhiar, Chelhar of Mithi Taluka and around 70% of primary schools are lacking basic school facilities while 95% of visited schools don’t have active school management committees.
Attempting to solve the issues of dropout of students, missing facilities in schools and strengthen the capacities of school management committees- SMCs, District Development Association Tharparkar- DDAT has been actively engaged in implementing Right to Education Project with support of District Education Department Tharparkar and UNESCO Pakistan in the selected 20 union councils of district Tharparkar since 2019 which aims increase enrolment, mainstreaming out of school children in government schools and retention of out of primary school children through quality education.
Krishan Sharma, President of District Development Association shared that his NGO in collaboration with UNESCO has supported Taluka and District Education Department Tharparkar for mainstreaming out of school children, improving retention and quality of primary education in the marginalized communities through school improvement and development. The joint efforts of all working stakeholders in Tharparkar, DDAT has mainstreamed 16300 out of primary school children in 700 government primary schools of district Tharparkar. He added that the project has also helped the education department to create a conducive and child friendly environment at school level with the provision of missing facilities, wash facilities, furniture, recreational and reading material and establishing of school level reading corners in 200 schools of Tharparkar.
Doulat Ram, DEO Tharparkar shared that there is still dire need to improve the status of education in the Tharparkar, where there is shortage of teachers, particularly female teachers.
He disclosed that Tharparkar has a large number of one room and one teacher schools with less infrastructures and facilities.
Ashok Odhano, an educationist said that Tharparkar has the highest ratio of drop-out children which is constraint to the quality education and attaining sustainable development goals. He added that Tharparkar has the lowest number of girls’ primary and secondary schools.
Anand Rathi, representative of the Reform Support Unit- RSU disclosed that around 30 million rupees of SMC funds have not been utilized since years and are lying unused in SMCs’ bank accounts.
DDEO Prem, Teerath Jhangi, Khanzadi Kapari, Saleem Rahimoon, Syed Munawar Shah, Mukesh Raja, Mama Vishan, Mushtaq Qasmani, Sarang Ram and others also spoke on the occasion.
