KARACHI: Karachi had a total of 3,036 government-run schools up to the higher secondary level in 2019, with 459,001 students and 22,079 teachers, according to the recently issued official school census report (2018-19).

A maximum of 745 Sindh government schools were located in the Malir district of Karachi, of which 132 (17.8%) were found closed or non-functional for various reasons. The central district of Karachi had 83 (13%) closed out of 621 schools, Karachi West had 66 (11%) out of 599, South had 56 (16%) closed out of 354, Korangi had 38 (9%) non-functional out of 432 and East had 31 (11%) out of 285 surveyed schools.

The census report titled “Sindh Education Profile 2019”, also available online now is a set of data pertaining to schools run by the Sindh Education Department, which prevailed by October 2018.

Among the districts of Karachi, the Central had a maximum of 96,619 students, followed by Korangi (92,784 students), West (86,824), Malir (69,477), South (62,338), and East (50,959) students.

There were 22,079 teachers, including 14,627 women, employed at the Sindh government schools in Karachi. As many as 6,019 teachers were employed at the district Central government schools, followed by Korangi (4,164), South (3,169), West (3,088), East (3,069), and Malir (2,574).

The overall teacher-student ratio remained 1:21 in the public schools of the city.

A total of 1,352 schools out of 3,036 in question did not have playgrounds, while 1,207 were without drinking water facility, 567 without washrooms, 873 without electricity, and 557 schools without their respective school management committees — a requirement of the Sindh Education Department.      –News Desk