According to provincial education department documents obtained by DawnNewsTV on Friday, 9,247 government-run schools in Balochistan have no facility for drinking water while 9,838 schools do not have toilet facilities.
Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani has taken notice of the deteriorating condition of government schools and directed all concerned deputy commissioners to visit schools and basic health units with the objective of improving social indicators.
An official handout quoting the chief minister said the deputy commissioners should submit reports to the provincial government regarding the schools they visit.
As per the documents, the province has over 13,000 primary, middle and high schools with an enrollment of 899,383 male and female students.
Additionally, the documents show that over 7,900 schools in the province do not have boundary walls, while there are 5,296 ‘one room, one teacher’ schools, reported Dawn News.
Despite the allocation of Rs2 billion for the construction of washrooms and the provision of missing facilities to government schools, fiscal budgets for the past two years (2016-17 and 2017-18) had lapsed, a well-placed officer of the provincial planning department told DawnNewsTV.
The Balochistan government has already declared education an emergency in the province and implemented Article 25A of the Constitution to make sure that out of school children attend school.
The article states: “The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to 16 years in such a manner as may be determined by law.” This article was incorporated into the Constitution through its 18th amendment.
Over 1 million children are still out of school in the province, Dawn reported.