Sialkot education dept shuts school instead of providing missing facilities

SIALKOT: The Sialkot education department has closed down the Govt Boys Primary School Beeni Sulehriyaan in Sabzpeer Markaz of Pasrur tehsil.

The officials said it was the only school for the primary education of the children in the area. Giving the reasons for the closure, they said the number of students enrolled in the school had reduced a lot due to missing facilities, including furniture, potable water, toilets, electricity and classrooms. Some unidentified people had already taken away the doors and windows of the classrooms of the building. Some influential people of the village were using the building as cattle shed and storeroom for their fodder.

The locals termed the education department officials responsible for the missing facilities, saying they had repeatedly brought the miserable situation into their notice but they remained unmoved. They said that instead of providing the school with the missing facilities and repair its building, the education department closed down the school. The students, very few in number, were shifted to another school.

In absence of the public school, the children of the poor, belonging to the dozens of the surrounding villages, are forced to send their children to private schools in Pasrur and even in Sialkot.

The local people have urged Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Sialkot Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Tahir Wattoo to take notice of the school closure and asked the officials to reopen it after provision of the missing facilities.

Source: Dawn News