Thursday, May 21, 2015

Pakistan - Parents struggle to enrol children in public schools




 Admission to public schools has become a daunting task for under-privileged in the capital.

Enrolment of kids in public schools has become a daunting task for the parents in the capital, Daily Times has learnt.

The only option left behind for the parents is to enrol their children in private institutions which is very challenging for them financially.
Over all 422 educational institutes are functioning under the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) including 20 model collages. Officials in the FDE said that 90,000 to 100,000 students are studying in the different government backed institutions of the capital which is more than the desired strength and the strength is also increasing day by day given the number of institutes.
A principle of the school commented that the capacity of the school is up to 400 students but about 600 are enrolled. Giving details, he said that the school is at the other corner of the city that is why students come from Rawat, Shakirial, PWD and different areas from the twin city.
“We daily refuse 30 to 40 students for admission, we need 24 teachers but we only have 16 that is a big hurdle for us,” he said.
A principle of a school blamed the FDE that he had written letters to the Federal Directorate of Education several times to construct new building amid the increased number of enrolled students but no reply came from the department concern.
Abeel Hussain, a father of a couple of kids said that enrolment of the kids in schools is very difficult for them because they have no access to the higher authority to get his children enrolled in the school.
A mother of a kid said that she had been searching here and there for the admission of her child but failed, “I have no money for the private school fee so what should I do”. she added.
Another principal of a school said that already 40 to 45 students enrolled in a class but he is forced to enrol 70 to 80 schools as he has received telephone calls from influential officers and ministries.
One of the education expert said that this is alarming condition for the students of the capital, day by day the strength of the students is increasing while no new institutes are being built in the city. “This is the government’s responsibility to increase the budget, basic education is a constitutional right for the every kid of the country, public sector of education infrastructure have a lot of flaws”, he said.
The scribe of the Daily Times tried his level best to connect with the director general FDE or department concern of the FDE but they don’t gave a positive response. “We were aware of the problems of the children and thousands of out of school children have been enrolled since last year,” sources in the FDE told the Daily Times.

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