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‘Empowering’ through education: 42% public schools in the city without power
By Noman Ahmed
Published: November 10, 2013
KARACHI:
Around 42 per cent of the 3,600 public schools in Karachi are now without power supply, even so education remains the ‘top priority’ of the provincial government with a massive budgetary allocation of Rs132.2 billion for the current fiscal year.
Since November last year, there has been a 12-per-cent increase in the number of schools without electricity in the face of Sindh education department’s laxity in paying bills to Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC). These outstanding dues amount to Rs50.6 million now.
The KESC spokesperson, Ahmed Faraz, failed to respond despite repeated attempts but another official at the power utility company confirmed the amount payable by the education department. He said that power supply to these schools was terminated as KESC’s ‘award of punishment’.
The official, requesting not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media on the subject, explained that the supply to public departments and institutions was not disconnected after a mere one-month notice, as is customary. The power utility company provided these department’s sufficient grace period, he added.
“But they cannot expect the KESC to provide free electricity,” the official added. “The education department should feel the pressure now because thousands of students are suffering due to their outstanding payments.”
Other means to empower
Meanwhile, the power supply disconnection has forced the workers at most of the over 1,500 affected schools to acquire illegal connections through the infamous ‘kunda’ system. “With no electricity for over four months, students and teachers were left to dread the harsh summers as the education department officials stayed comfortably inside their air-conditioned rooms,” complained a teacher at Shama Government Boys and Girls Elementary School in Saudabad, which has acquired an illegal connection. “We were punished for something we had no role to offer, so we had no other option.”
At the Green Dale Government Boys Primary School near Malir’s Liaquat Market, teachers were on the same page as they also blamed both the education department and the KESC for the students’ suffering. “They keep pointing fingers at each other while no one appears serious enough to resolve the issue,” said the headmistress. Even the school where the country’s founder, Quaid-e-Azam studied once – Church Mission School – has set up an illegal connection.
For his part, Niaz Ahmed Laghari, the director of Karachi schools, termed the power disconnections as ‘sheer injustice’. “The defaulter is not the Sindh education department but the power utility company, which has to return around Rs40 million,” Laghari told The Express Tribune.
“The KESC kept sending irrational bills and the education department kept paying without verifying them,” he pointed out. “They even sent exorbitant bills to the schools where they had failed to install meters. We want all such payments back.”
Laghari added that both the parties have now agreed to form joint survey teams to reach consensus on the ground situation but, he said, the KESC is dillydallying now.
Meanwhile, the situation was not limited to the public schools only as the KESC had, in the past, disconnected power supply to several colleges in the city, as well. The education department’s director general of colleges, Dr Nasir Ansar claimed, however, that all the outstanding dues of the colleges, amounting to Rs22 million, were paid to the power utility on Thursday.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 10th, 2013.
By Noman Ahmed
Published: November 10, 2013
KARACHI:
Around 42 per cent of the 3,600 public schools in Karachi are now without power supply, even so education remains the ‘top priority’ of the provincial government with a massive budgetary allocation of Rs132.2 billion for the current fiscal year.
Since November last year, there has been a 12-per-cent increase in the number of schools without electricity in the face of Sindh education department’s laxity in paying bills to Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC). These outstanding dues amount to Rs50.6 million now.
The KESC spokesperson, Ahmed Faraz, failed to respond despite repeated attempts but another official at the power utility company confirmed the amount payable by the education department. He said that power supply to these schools was terminated as KESC’s ‘award of punishment’.
The official, requesting not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media on the subject, explained that the supply to public departments and institutions was not disconnected after a mere one-month notice, as is customary. The power utility company provided these department’s sufficient grace period, he added.
“But they cannot expect the KESC to provide free electricity,” the official added. “The education department should feel the pressure now because thousands of students are suffering due to their outstanding payments.”
Other means to empower
Meanwhile, the power supply disconnection has forced the workers at most of the over 1,500 affected schools to acquire illegal connections through the infamous ‘kunda’ system. “With no electricity for over four months, students and teachers were left to dread the harsh summers as the education department officials stayed comfortably inside their air-conditioned rooms,” complained a teacher at Shama Government Boys and Girls Elementary School in Saudabad, which has acquired an illegal connection. “We were punished for something we had no role to offer, so we had no other option.”
At the Green Dale Government Boys Primary School near Malir’s Liaquat Market, teachers were on the same page as they also blamed both the education department and the KESC for the students’ suffering. “They keep pointing fingers at each other while no one appears serious enough to resolve the issue,” said the headmistress. Even the school where the country’s founder, Quaid-e-Azam studied once – Church Mission School – has set up an illegal connection.
For his part, Niaz Ahmed Laghari, the director of Karachi schools, termed the power disconnections as ‘sheer injustice’. “The defaulter is not the Sindh education department but the power utility company, which has to return around Rs40 million,” Laghari told The Express Tribune.
“The KESC kept sending irrational bills and the education department kept paying without verifying them,” he pointed out. “They even sent exorbitant bills to the schools where they had failed to install meters. We want all such payments back.”
Laghari added that both the parties have now agreed to form joint survey teams to reach consensus on the ground situation but, he said, the KESC is dillydallying now.
Meanwhile, the situation was not limited to the public schools only as the KESC had, in the past, disconnected power supply to several colleges in the city, as well. The education department’s director general of colleges, Dr Nasir Ansar claimed, however, that all the outstanding dues of the colleges, amounting to Rs22 million, were paid to the power utility on Thursday.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 10th, 2013.
