INKISHAF.Pakistan

More than one-fifth of the teaching posts at government-run colleges for women are vacant, reveal statistics released by Fafen Education Institution Monitor . With the exception of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where the occupancy rate of teachers’ vacancies was almost 93%, other provinces lacked teaching staff. In Balochistan’s monitored colleges, 29% teaching posts were not filled. Similarly 28% of teaching posts in Sindh colleges and 24% in Punjab colleges were vacant. A higher percentage of non-teaching posts were filled in comparison to teaching posts in monitored colleges. Nearly 92% of the sanctioned non-teaching posts were filled in the monitored colleges. The research says that the government spending on each college-going female student is lower than what is being spent on a college-going male student by Rs1,348 a year. According to Fafen monitoring of 106 boys colleges during April 2010, government spends Rs18, 815 annually on each student of boy colleges nationwide as compared to Rs17,467 on each student enrolled in girl colleges annually. The Fafen Governance Monitors visited 94 Government Girls Colleges across the country during September 2010 which included 46 girls colleges in 28 districts of Punjab, 20 colleges in 16 districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 9 colleges in 9 districts of Balochistan, 17 girls colleges in 11 districts of Sindh and one college each in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). In addition to that, one teacher was found available for every 45 students enrolled in monitored colleges nationwide. Region-wise, Balochistan had better student-teacher ratio where one teacher was available for every 34 students, followed by KP, where a teacher was present for every 37 students. Sindh followed with an average of one teacher per 39 students and in Punjab one teacher was available for every 56 students on average. The Punjab’s lower student-lecturer ratio can be attributed to the higher enrolment rate. In Fata, a teacher was present for every 10 students in the monitored institution, and in ICT, one teacher was available for every 18 students in the monitored college. On average, the government spends Rs17,467 on each student enrolled in girl colleges annually, as per the budgetary information shared by 17 colleges. The highest per student spending was found in Islamabad Capital Territory where Rs28,483 were spent on each student, followed by Sindh (Rs23,341), KP (Rs17,523) and Punjab (Rs12, 620). Balochistan and Fata colleges did not share this information with Fafen Monitors. Transparency surfaced as a major issue during Fafen’s monitoring of the girls colleges. As many as 77 out of 94 monitored colleges declined to provide information about their budget. As many as 21 colleges withheld information regarding the number of students present on the day of the Fafen visit. Similarly, some colleges did not share information about the total number of sanctioned teaching and non-teaching posts, against the number of filled posts. The administration of nine colleges did not share information about the attendance of teachers while 21 colleges did not provide information about the number of enrolled students. For physical infrastructure and facilities, bare minimum standards were maintained in monitored colleges. However some colleges were lacking in the availability of clean drinking water, furniture, playgrounds, and security guards. While 31 per cent colleges did not have a security guard, 28 per cent did not have the required furniture in classrooms.