THERE are more than 7,000 ‘ghost schools’ in Pakistan, but it takes years to adopt a government school. Currently, we have more than 22.4 million children out of school in Pakistan and their number will only grow as the Covid fallout continues to unfold.

The virus outbreak greatly affected the learning of all children globally, and Pakistan was no exception. Many private schools kept the activity going through online teaching, but children from poor localities could not afford luxuries like computers, internet connections and, in many cases, even electricity. As such, they ended up watching two years of their life go to waste in terms of learning anything even though they were promoted to the next classes in the wake of the government decision to that effect.

Now, with life returning to the routine mode, these children will start feeling the pinch of the time lost. The education system was already not quite ideal even pre-pandemic, but will now struggle even more because of the knowledge backlog that has piled up over the last two years.

A look at the literacy rate of some of our neighbouring countries will tell us where we stand right now. Sri Lanka has 91.9 per cent literacy, Bangladesh 72.8pc and Bhutan 66.56pc. In cmparison, Pakistan stands rather low with 59.13pc.

Across Pakistan, there are about 30,000 ‘ghost’ schools that continue to exist only on paper. These are non-functioning entities. Recent official reports suggest almost 7,000 such schools exist in Sindh alone; many of them in the megacity of Karachi.

According to government policy, competent organisations, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), can adopt a public-sector school and make changes to improve the academic standard. Many of the ghost schools have been adopted and they are doing a great job, but there are still a very large number of schools, including some in Karachi, that remain non-functional.

The process of adopting a school takes a minimum of one year to make things move because of the infamous bureaucratic red-tapism. All work is done manually, and the approval papers keep rotating from one table to another. It is often like a game of musical chairs in which no music is being played, which means the merry-go-round has to keep revolving. It takes years when finally the memorandum of understanding (MoU) is signed and handed over to the applicant.

An NGO with which I am associated spent close to three years to adopt one government school after running from pillar to post and reminding the government agencies for the issuance of the final letter. We have a few government schools and are working in the education sector for some time now. I suggest the department concerned to make the process digital which might facilitate, if not expedite, the process to some extent. It will save time, and the process will be a bit more transparent.

The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) has made its process digital and has made the life of the department and the applicants simple; one can even track the file and the expected date of receiving the awaited approval. If this can be done by one government organisation, others can surely follow suit.

Dr Asghar Naqvi
Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2022