Public schools in Punjab are having a hard time retaining students in classrooms, many of which lack proper furniture to seat students along with a general lack of toilets and boundary walls in schools. But despite the deplorable situation in many public schools, the authorities concerned have been unable to fully utilize the non-salary budget (NSB) during the outgoing quarter.
The finding were reported in the 3rd quarterly ranking of districts & divisions for 2018-19 for the months of January, February and March 2019. For this quarter, the indicators have been tweaked and the ranking is based on a new set of indicators.
The most affected sections of the public schooling system in this quarter were the schools’ inability to retain the proscribed percentages of students in classrooms and utilizing the NSB funds during the quarter. Furthermore, it was found that more than half of the districts across Punjab did not have the furniture to accommodate enrolled students.
Of the 36 districts of Punjab, only 7 were able to achieve 97 percent – the target of student retention
Of the 36 districts of Punjab, only 7 were able to retain 97 percent – the target of student retention – for all three months, whereas 26 districts could not retain the target percentage in any of the month. The worst performing districts included Gujranwala, Rajanpur, Lahore, Pakpattan and Muzaffargarh, respectively.
For the NSB fund, the government had set an spending target of 90 percent, however, not a single district of the province was able to achieve that target in any of the quarter’s three months. The five worst performing districts, in that order, were Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rawalpindi, Bahawalnagar and Narowal.
Per overall ranking, Kasur retained its first position from the previous quarter, whereas Chakwal jumped to the second position from its earlier 20th. Similarly, Gujrat secured the third place in contrast to its 29th position in the previous quarter. Sheikhupura was fourth, up from the 9th place, while Attock was placed 5th.
The bottom five districts were again from the Southern part of the province and included Rajanpur at 32nd, Dera Ghazi Khan at 33rd, Jhang at 34th, Bahawalnagar at 35th and Bahawalpur at the last place at 36th.
For the division ranking, Lahore topped the ranking followed by Gujranwala at the second place, Sargodha was given the third place, Rawalpindi fourth, Multan fifth, Sahiwal sixth, Faisalabad seventh, Dera Ghazi Khan eighth and Bahawalpur was at the seventh place.
