Deplorable Situation of Education in Washuk, Balochistan

By: Dr. Nouroz Khan Essazai

Washuk was notified as a separate district status on 4^th June 2005, Formerly it was a Tehsil of District Kharan. Area wise district Washuk is the third largest district in Balochistan and covers an area of 33.093 sq km. its projected population is 129747. Consists of 3 Tehsils viz Basima, Mashkel and Washuk and 9 union councils. It is 464 km away in the southwest of Quetta, Sharing its boundaries in the southwest with Panjgur, Khuzdar in the east, Chaghai, Kharan in the north and Iran in the west. Main ethnic group in the district is Baloch. The district has one provincial assembly seat PB47 and combined constituency of Kharan, Washuk, Panjgur, NA271. The district is famous for groves of date palms.

     Washuk has remained as one of the neglected districts of Balochistan with respect to developmental activities and is facing serious funding constrains to carry out its activities. In order to bring it par with other districts of Balochistan, serious measures have never been taken and has not remained on developmental preference of provincial as well as federal government.

    District Washuk’s backwardness is multidimensional. Illiteracy, unavailable of electricity, unavailability of banks and mobile services in this era of technology and unstable district governmental departments are one of the genuine concerns. Along with other problems the scattered population of District does not have access to educational facilities. Some key findings and brief highlights of educational departments are as follows.

     According to BEMIS 2010 statistical report, there are total 160 schools for the population of 129747, 141 are primary schools (boys 111 / girls 30), 12 middle schools (8 boys / 4 girls), 7 high schools (Boys 6 / 1 Girls) thus Washuk has the least no of schools in Balochistan. The number of enrolled students is very low. Teacher pupil ratio shows that there is one teacher for 30 boys and one teacher for 76 girl’s in primary schools. There are 60 adult literacy centers which were running by NCHD, and are now non functional. 36 community schools are being operated by BEF.

     Basic infrastructure facilities portray an alarming picture. Statistics reveals that 15 primary schools are still without building, 104 are without boundary wall, 111 are without toilets, and 41% have no water facility. Same is the condition of middle schools, 6 middle schools are still without boundary wall, and 4 have no toilet and water facility. 2 high schools are without boundary wall.

    There is only one girl’s high school in the district and one Boys Inter College at Tehseel Basima, which is still without building and infrastructure. Number of permanent lecturers is three in college. Literary rate of females is less than 6%. There is no private college in the district and three private schools are working in Basima on selfhelp.

Major educational problems: Various problems regarding educational backwardness include very insufficient number of educational institutions, infrastructure problems, severe deficiency of SST (S) and SST (G) at middle and high schools, unavailability of science labs, computer labs, deficiency of exam halls and absence of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, no scouting programs. Furthermore old school buildings have not been renovated. Along with this, unavailability of transport and conveyance facility for district educational department, particularly for students of Girls high school Basima who come from far flung and remote areas. It is necessary to mention that reserved seats of district’s huge population at different professional colleges are less, and are not equivalent to  district deserved quota. In continuation with these, another issue is the non functional and abandoned technical workshop at boy’s high school Basima.

  Political influence is one of the most important factors, which has polluted, ruined and damaged the educational setup. Teachers are recruited and appointed on political grounds instead of merit. The district education officer is selected with same procedure, due to this evil, there is no strict supervision and monitoring of school, this is why that syllabus is never completed in governmental schools. Drop out percentage and ratio at Washuk district is very high as compared to other districts of Balochistan for following reasons.  Boys drop out is due to late schooling age (9-10), as they reach the age of adolescence, due to poverty parents consider they should help them.  

Girls discontinue their education due to sever deficiency of educational institutes. It can be assessed from this that there is only one Girls High School at Basima and no College for girls in the district.

          Serious notice and immediate, special attention should be given on backwardness and deplorable, situation of Washuk, and practical measures must be carried out by education department, Elected representatives, NGO’s can play an important role in uplifting the educational standard of Washuk.