Education emergency to be imposed in Sindh, says CM

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Tuesday that an education emergency would be declared in the province to bring back out-of-school children. 

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day Second Sindh Joint Education Sector Review being conducted by the education and literacy department at a hotel. 

He that “we have Article 25-A for free and compulsory education for children aged 5-16 years, and now we need to ensure that children are in school”. 

“Money is not a problem; we already have enough and can re-appropriate from other sources to fulfil the commitments. The real challenge is to utilise funds and achieve the desired outcome.”

He further said that to ensure that every child was in school, a Child Registration Certificate from Nadra should be linked with the education system. “We should start registration the day a child is born.”

He advised the education minister to mobilise all MPAs to look after schools in their constituencies. 

The provincial minister for education and literacy, Jam Mehtab Dahar, vowed that every child in Sindh would get quality education through the successful implementation of the Sindh Education Sector Plan.

He spoke of educational challenges in the province where there were still around 6.6 million children out of school (age bracket 5-16years). “It is very much important for government, development partners and civil society to synergise resources and efforts to tackle this challenge.”

The secretary for education and literacy, Dr Fazlullah Pechuho, discussed challenges in the education system. He said that governance was also one of the challenges, but “we have managed to handle it by hiring monitors” in the field to monitor schools and absent teachers. 

“Another important step towards improving governance is the Complaint Management System called ILMI. It’s a text-based system through which any one can send a complaint.”

Earlier, the chief programme manager of the Reform Support Unit, Faisal Ahmed Uquaili, shed light on the road to SECP development.

Development partners like Unicef education specialist Shahla Rashid-ud Din, deputy mission director Sindh and Baluchistan Denise Herbol, World Bank senior education specialist Umbreen Arif, SESSP European Union chief adviser Zeeshan Tariq, a senior education specialist of global partnership for education Edouard Lamot, Unesco provincial coordinator Nyi Nyi Thaung, JICA chief chief adviser Chiho Ohashi and Director Indus Resource Centre Sadiqa Salahuddin also spoke on the occasion.