LAHORE: Almost 11 per cent 6-16 years of age children in Lahore are out-of-school despite Punjab government’s massive enrollment drives aimed at bringing all out-of-school children to schools.
There are almost 11pc public primary schools that lack toilets facility while 11pc are without drinking water. As high as 22pc public primary schools are without playgrounds but all primary schools have complete boundary walls.
This was revealed in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2013 with reference to the Lahore district conducted by Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi at the All Pakistan Women Association (APWA) here on Thursday.
Despite focus on improving quality of education through recruitment of better qualified teachers and regular teacher training, some 30pc Class-V children cannot read a Class-II story text in Urdu, 33pc Class-V children cannot read sentences in English, and 64pc Class-V children cannot do two-digit division.
The report stated that there was a great gender gap in learning as boys outperformed girls in numeracy and literacy skills. It reported higher incidence of private tuition trend in private school students. The report said the children enrolled in private schools were performing better compared to their government schools counterparts.
It stated that there were more qualified teachers in private schools as compared to government schools.
Speaking at the report launch, University of Management and Technology’s education department chairman Sajid Masood explained thought-provoking patterns and challenges in all Punjab districts in comparison with the Lahore district.
Former director of Public Instruction, Punjab, Jamil Najam said the education sector had been facing crisis for many years and stressed that the community must come forward to demand provision of quality education.
Officials from the district education department, Iftikhar Cheema and Ms Robina, discussed the situation of education in Lahore district.
APWA chairperson Ruhi Sayid said that proper development and grooming of the future generation was lacking with the downfall in education.