By By Farooq Baloch
The coalition government of Sindh has announced all out support for the “Government Schools Reform Programme,” a joint project of Zindagi Trust and the Book Group. The Sindh government has promised to help enhance the programme by handing over more government schools to the Trust under the adopt-a-school procedure and has called for setting up more model schools on the pattern of the Sindh Madressa Board’s (SMB) Fatima Jinnah Government Girls Secondary School, calling it a success.
Both, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) joined hands on the same agenda of supporting this project after being convinced that the experiment of converting SMB Fatima Jinnah School into a model school of international standard, saying that it was a great success and, if supported, the NGOs can revolutionize education in Sindh by improving education standards.
The long awaited development took place in what seemed to be a very promising meeting of senior members of coalition government held at SMB Fatima Jinnah Government Girls School on Wednesday. The seriousness and commitment shown by the leaders of both the parties was very promising since they all expressed their satisfaction over what they believed was a positive change and a step towards development.
“The most important thing in today’s meeting is that we have a common political will to support this project,” Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan said, adding that quality education was the key to solving all other problems.
Sindh Minister for Education, Literacy and Criminal Prosecution, Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq said: “Seeing is believing. I saw a revolutionary change in the SMB school when I first visited it. I felt like I was visiting some top private school of the city but later discovered how this government school was converted into a model school which was nearly an impossible task.”
MQM Rabita Committee Deputy Convener (and Parliamentary Leader of the party) Dr Farooq Sattar said: “The only purpose of visiting the school collectively is to show people that education is the priority of the coalition government of Sindh”. City Nazim Mustafa Kamal, who played an important role in making the project a success, also praised the dedicated efforts of the two NGOs, saying: “Their agenda is to set more model schools this this one.”
Briefing visitors about the project, Shehzad Roy of Zindagi Trust said: “We adopted this school a year-and-a-half ago to support the government in improving the education standard at public schools so that the children of poor people could also acquire quality education in the best environment.”
Sami Mustafa of Book Group also briefed visitors about the changes they have brought about and said that they did not make only infrastructural changes but also administrative changes which were necessary for providing quality education. “We have engaged teachers of best private schools in the city for training the teachers of SMB school as well as introducing latest books in the school,” he elaborated.
“The teachers have done exceptionally well and the myth that government school teachers can’t teach these books and government school students can’t learn is wrong,” he said critically.