Balochistan caretaker ministers addressing a press conference: Photo Muhammad Ismail
Syed Ali Shah:
QUETTA: In Balochistan, 1783 girls’ schools have no washroom facility. This was revealed by the caretaker Balochistan education minister, Qadir Bakhsh Baloch while addressing a press conference at Quetta Press Club on Friday evening.
Balochistan Caretaker Information Minister, Jan Achakzai, and caretaker health minister, Amir Muhammad Jogezai addressed a joint press conference and highlighted investment potential, health and education issues of the province. They spoke at length and vowed to lay the right foundation of the system within a few months to improve the governance and functioning of government departments.
“Overall, 5716 government-run schools have no toilet facility”
“Overall, 5716 government-run schools have no toilet facility”, the caretaker education minister revealed. He termed this one of the underlying reasons behind the poor literacy rate and declining standard of education in Balochistan.
Mr. Baloch painted a very bleak picture of the education department and vowed to bring reforms in a short span of time in terms of improving the quality of education. The education minister further revealed that a single teacher for 4,000 schools across the province. “We are trying to deploy a second teacher for each school to make sure the presence of teachers”, he informed.
A smart/model school to be established in each district: Baloch
In response to a question, the education minister admitted that still there were thousands of non-functional/ghost schools across Balochistan with thousands of ghost teachers. He said most of the teachers were performing their duties in urban centers and they were reluctant to perform their duties in the rural and far-flung areas of Balochistan.
He, however, announced that a model/smart school would be established in every district within a few months to impart quality education to students. “Poor and marginalized students should be provided quality education”, he said.
Health Card to be launched this month: Dr. Jogezai
Speaking on the occasion, Balochistan health minister, Dr. Amir Muhammad Jogezai informed that the much-awaited health card would be launched this month. He said over 2 million families across Balochistan would be provided free health cards to avail quality health treatment. “We are committed to improving health services for the common man”, Dr. Jogezai said.