Building blues

During last month’s monsoon rains, frequent news reports surfaced about school roofs collapsing across various parts of Sindh, leaving parents filled with anxiety and fear for their children’s safety.

In Basiro village, Khairpur district, 12 eighth-grade students sustained head injuries when a large piece of concrete plaster fell from the ceiling in their classroom at a government high school. Fortunately, no fatalities occurred, but this incident raises serious concerns about the safety of students enrolled in public schools.

Tragically, such shocking incidents have occurred before, without prompting any meaningful change in the usual apathetic behaviour of the authorities, who remain indifferent to the plight of poor children. Nearly a decade ago, I wrote an article in another newspaper in frustration over a similar issue. This followed a tragic incident where a school corridor wall collapsed in Qabool Pur village, district Tando Mohammad Khan, resulting in the death of an eight-year-old first-grade student and injuries to several others.

Yet, in a short span of time, we tend to move on. The news fades, and the case is set aside. This is the general reaction of the public, and the media rarely follows up on such stories.

The Sindh High Court’s Sukkur Bench has taken cognizance of the Khairpur incident, summoning the concerned authorities. However, it offers a little hope, as such cases often fail to hold anyone accountable. The reason lies in the lengthy and complex legal process, which is further hindered by weak or missing evidence to establish negligence or guilt. As a result, cases of public interest seldom lead to meaningful accountability.

Both sides have presented their own defence; the engineers from the Works and Services Department claim that they had declared the school building dangerous after a technical assessment, yet the school administration reopened the building after the summer vacations, believing it to be safe from its outward appearance.

Meanwhile, the school administration argues that they had no choice but to use the building, as the upper portion of the building was under construction. We will have to see which side can substantiate their claim in the court, but unfortunately this incident seems destined to meet the same fate – ending without fixing responsibility on any specific party/individual.

A problem well stated is half solved, so let’s first examine where the issue lies before discussing solutions to this longstanding malaise of vested interests, incompetence, neglect, and corruption. First, the frequent damage to school roofs, whether caused by heavy or light rain, is largely due to negligence on the part of school administrations. Headmasters often fail to take the necessary precautions before the monsoon season. Rooftops are not inspected to ensure proper drainage, and without such basic maintenance, rainwater accumulates, damaging the infrastructure and causing plaster to fall.

In addition to negligence, another significant issue is the centralized system of maintenance and repair at the provincial level. The cumbersome processes of procurement and fund disbursement further delay essential repairs, exacerbating the problem.

Apart from this, there are serious issues related to planning capacity, execution, and time management – along with questionable intent. Every fiscal year, barely half of the Annual Development Budget (ADB) for education is utilized. In the last fiscal year (2023-24), the situation was even worse, setting a new low.

Out of the Rs16 billion allocated under the ADB for education, Rs4 billion were earmarked for new projects, and the rest for ongoing ones. However, only Rs6 billion was released – and that too towards the end of fiscal year. It defies understanding how the same cycle of poor planning and execution repeats itself year after year, without anyone ever being held accountable.

And this is happening in a province where school infrastructure is in desperate need of extensive upgrading and improvement. Out of a total of 40,978 schools in Sindh, 5159 are shelterless. Furthermore, 36225 schools are primary schools, of which 60 per cent consist of just one or two rooms, many of which lack basic facilities such as toilets, drinking water and electricity. Given this dire state of school buildings, how can the province justify a 50 per cent underutilization of its budget? Where does one even begin to address this issue?

When the rulers claim that they want to see the poor and disadvantaged children educated and successful, it feels like self-incrimination, as their actions tell an entirely different story.

The writer is an education expert and can be reached at: asgharsoomro@gmail.com