the tough journey ahead.
“There was just too much to do with a new scandal every other day to work on the Rules of Business,” remarked a senior official in the education and literacy department on the condition of anonymity. “To be honest, the process just got delayed on account of bureaucratic red-tapism,” the official added.
“There is an acute shortage of qualified staff. A lot of officials who are part of the department aren’t qualified enough while others aren’t willing to come here and deal with the mammoth issues plaguing the education sector because of its tarnished reputation.”
However, the education secretary Dr Fazlullah Pechuho recently set up a committee of stakeholders and foreign donors to sit down and devise the much-needed Rules of Business for the free and fair education law.
“The committee will begin working this week. It includes members of educational research and advocacy groups and representatives of international donors who have pledged their monetary support,” Dr Pechuho said.
Last year, the department came up with a five-year plan in the Sindh Education Sector Plan (SESP) 2014 which provided guidelines about achieving education-related goals at an estimated overall cost of Rs940 billion.
The plan was to take the policies outlined in the SESP and work with all the stakeholders, especially the local ones, to improve the declining enrolment rates and gather dynamic data for the resolution of the existing problems.
Another aspect of the plan was to make arrangements for early learning for children between three and five years so that they could assimilate better in the school environment.
In January this year, the Sindh School Education Standards and Curriculum Act 2015 was passed by the provincial assembly.
Ironically, the Rules of Business for this law are almost ready and just need to be notified while those of the Free and Fair Education Act 2013 have yet to be worked upon.