VideoPakistan's 'ghost schools' threaten next generation
Pakistan's 7,000 so-called "ghost" schools are part of a growing education crisis in the country where over five million children do not attend primary school according to the United Nations
In a decrepit white-walled classroom in southern Pakistan, Bushra valiantly struggles to keep discipline as a dozen girls run and scream around her. With no teacher for the past eight months, the 10-year-old has been forced to step in.
"I teach them lessons from the Koran, I teach them Sindhi, I teach them to count one-two, I teach them the alphabet A-B-C-D," said Bushra, wearing a traditional nose stud and a scarf around her head. She says she dreams of becoming a doctor and learning about computers.
But her academic ambitions risk being scuppered after her own teacher fled. Authorities have not appointed a new one, making Bushra's situation typical for a student at one of Pakistan's 7,000 so-called "ghost schools", where no formal classes can be taught.
These abandoned pupils are part of a growing education crisis in the country where, according to the United Nations, over five million children do not attend primary school.
"The last teacher told us she would stop coming if we did not pay for her transportation to the village," said Salim Samoon, who has seven granddaughters at the school catering for the roughly 600 residents of Chancher Redhar, a village two hours drive from Karachi in the south of Pakistan.
"But we have no money and the authorities have not appointed a new teacher," he said.