Ghost schools haunt Pakistan’s educational system

Pakistan's infamous “ghost” schools are back in the news again. Taking up a petition filed last year, the country’s Supreme Court has ordered a nationwide investigation into hundreds of “ghost” schools, which continue to taint Pakistan’s reputation in education. The issue of institutions, which exist only on paper, has also been previously raised by the European Union and the US as several of them benefit from international monetary aid each year.
The country’s track record in educational spending remains dismal. According to a recently published UN and government report, almost half of all primary school age children and three quarters of young girls are not enrolled in primary school in Pakistan. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reveals that public spending on education in Pakistan is among lowest in the world, with only nine other countries ranked lower than it. Contrary to recommendations of UN of allocating 4 percent of GDP to development of education sector, the country spends less than 2.5 percent of its GDP in this field. In sharp contrast, fund amounting to over 18 percent of GDP are allocated for defense spending.
Subsequently, with a literacy rate of only about 50 percent, Pakistan is ranked in 160th place on world literacy charts. Only Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Nepal lag behind Pakistan in the region.
Most of these ghost schools are located in the rural districts and there is no official record about their state and funds allocated to them. These fake schools have gained the notorious reputation of hosting political elites and tribal chieftains, serving as cattle farms, and sanctuaries of drug addicts and criminal gangs. There are no official estimates about the number of such schools across Pakistan. A Karachi-based analyst, Qazi Asif, claims that, “the numbers of these schools are in thousands in all over Pakistan, especially in Sindh. I even don’t trust the government figures in this regard. The figures might be beyond Official government estimates put the number of these ghost schools at roughly 25,000.
A majority of these fake schools are located in remote and less developed districts in Sindh and Balochistan. In these regions, tribal system runs deep and strong. Educating the youth remains one of the least priorities for families living in tribal areas. Even if locals are inclined toward education, they are not able to confront tribal chieftains and influential politicians, and resign to fate. Some of these schools are known to be dumping grounds of heavy weapons, which are used later in tribal clashes.
Each year, salaries amounting to several millions of rupees are dished out to teachers, who exist either only on papers or never go to teach. A large majority of these appointments are made in an irregular manner based on political and local connections. In many cases, government teachers appoint untrained sub-teachers to perform their duties, while they manage their personal businesses. Successive governments have sidelined all merit considerations to hire candidates of their political allies. Ijaz Shaikh, a political analyst, points out that, “they are not worried about promotion of literacy in their areas. They are worried about how much benefits they have got for their political allies during their tenure.” The influential people are known to place their illiterate peasants and farmers as teachers in these fake schools to win votes in local elections.
When analyzing the performance and impact of government schools in Pakistan, it must be remembered that these institutions still cater to a large section of society. Even though billions of rupees are pumped into these educational projects each year, they have failed to deliver the desired results because of multiple reasons. According to a recent report of Sindh Ministry of Education, over 12,000 schools are shelter-less, while around 25,000 schools do not have access to drinking water.
Remedial actions taken by the government and other agencies have been unproductive as they are initiated usually on a fire fighting basis and lack long-term planning.
Pakistan’s ailing education sector needs immediate attention of the authorities to ensure that all citizens are provided this basic right enshrined in the constitution. This would require the installation of a credible and transparent recruitment and facilitation process of teachers. Special bodies must be set up to check the existence of ghost schools and also keep a tab on the performance of each school.
At the same time, there needs to be thorough assessment of the taught curriculum so that it is at par with global standards and does not promote any self-serving propaganda of ruling elite. There is also a need to promote greater public-private partnership for the development and maintenance of school buildings. Without a conducive learning environment, students will continue to experience severe disadvantage in the future and fail to realize their dreams.