Public-sector education in Sindh has been on the deathbed for decades. Covid-related restrictions and then the closure of educational institutions following calamitous floods have further eroded any hope for improvement.
About 22 million out-of-school children and thousands of dysfunctional, nonviable, closed and ‘ghost schools’ no more alarm the policymakers. According to an estimate, 15,000 schools in Sindh have been affected by the floods this year and another 5,500 have been converted into relief camps. As the floodwater is still standing in many of the affected areas, rehabilitation of destroyed or damaged schools might take years. Other than the natural causes, the most disappointing development is that majority of the newly-appointed primary, junior elementary and high school teachers are unwilling to conduct classes. Many of them work in private and non-governmental sectors on high remunerations. They are neither willing to leave their high salaries in the private sector nor are they ready to forgo their new government school jobs.
Educational officialdom and teacher union leaders can be held accountable for the gradual degradation in our education field. Union leaders have always tolerated and even defended the absentee teachers. They often include in their election panels those who had never taken a single class in their long ‘careers’. There is a need for unions and officialdom to change their self-serving mindset. There should be no compromise on education. The unions should take the lead and distance themselves from those who only want to draw salaries without performing their duties.
The whole system is rotten, with elements like commitment, dedication and honesty losing their shine. Corruption, non-performance and nepotism are the favoured traits and considered a matter of pride.
While there are teachers who prefer their financial interest, the newly appointed teachers who do want to teach but are unwilling to grease the palm of the educational bureaucracy are appointed in schools far away from their residence or are being harassed on one pretext or the other. Such a behaviour is condemnable.
GULSHER PANHWER
JOHI
