Private & govt schools in Lahore

5,000 private, 1,300 govt schools in City
Lahore, June 13: Over the years academic circles have been expressing concerns over shortage of government schools especially at primary level vis-?-vis increasing population.

This shortage of government educational facility, obviously, is one of the contributing factors behind mushroom growth of private sector schools across the country. The comparison of the number of public and private schools functioning in the provincial metropolis alone should be an eye opener for those at the helm and who are never tired of making tall claims of providing facilities to the people at their doorstep.

Punjab's capital Lahore has around 1,300 government schools while it has over 5,000 registered private schools. This data was also shared by Punjab Minister for Education Mian Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman at a function held recently. These simple figures are sufficient to understand as to how successive governments have badly and blatantly ignored establishment of new schools.

This aspect of shortage of schools has also been highlighted in a recently launched book "Education in Pakistan: Developmental Milestones" written by Punjab University Faculty of Education Dean Prof Dr Hafiz Muhammad Iqbal.

The available statistics regarding primary schools in Pakistan reveal a negative trend. During the Musharraf government, instead of expanding primary education in public sector, the number of primary schools rather decreased, from 159,330 in 1998-99 to 156,400 in 2009-10. The deteriorating standard of education at government schools and more especially at primary level is another serious concern. The government schools offer free education with free textbooks to the students but still people prefer sending their children to private schools. According to Dr Hafiz Muhammad Iqbal, enrolment rate at private schools in Lahore is 66 percent while at government schools it is merely 33 percent. It is quite clear that the difference between the both is of quality component. Therefore academic circles have been highlighting the need for focusing the quality component besides establishing more government schools to save the people from being fleeced by private schools.