CM orders provision of missing facilities to schools in three months

Murad also wants mistakes removed from curriculum;
announces scholarship scheme for female students

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has decided to overhaul the public sector education system in the province and ordered the release of the required funds to provide missing facilities to schools within three months.

The decision was taken on Wednesday at a meeting, which was attended by Education Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Education Secretary (schools) Aziz Uqaili, Additional Secretary Education Nawaz Sohu and other officers concerned.

Briefing the meeting, Uqaili said 11, 474 schools were functioning without toilets in the province, another 13,016 were without drinking water, 1, 116 did not have boundary walls and 13,158 were without electricity.

The chief minister said that it was quite painful for him to learn that a large number of schools (both for boys and girls) were without basic facilities like toilets, water and electricity.

He asked how it was possible for a student to concentrate on his education in such a suffocating atmosphere. He said that the situation was very serious and must be addressed seriously. He described illiteracy as the problem of “all our ills”.

“If we succeed in developing a good education system by inducting well-trained teachers, introducing a decent curriculum, we would be able to eliminate terrorism, crime and other evils from the society without shedding blood.”

Shah stated that he had declared an education emergency, and directed the education minister to visit districts and get toilets and water tanks built on a war footing.

“I will urge you to take it as a challenge and provide all the missing facilities to the schools within three months,” he said and ordered the finance department to release the required funds.

The education minister informed the CM that he had made efforts and reopened 1, 759 schools all over Sindh, where 55,816 children had been enrolled so far. 

The meeting was informed that 351 schemes of Rs79.15 billion had been launched for the development of the education department, and the government had allocated Rs13 billion this year. Out of 351 schemes, 140 were ongoing and 211 were new, it was further told.

The chief minister directed the education minister to hold a review meeting of the curriculum being taught in the government schools in all classes. “I want to overhaul the entire curriculum, for which leading educationists, literary figures and other people may be involved to invite suggestions.” 

He said that in the first phase mistakes must be removed from the curriculum books and later a consultative process for overhauling the curriculum should be started.

Shah further stated that he was also working hard to establish a state-of-art teachers training academy which could produce genuinely trained schoolteachers. It was pointed out that every year around 3, 000 teachers retired from service and the department needed their replacements on a regular basis.

“Let us develop a cycle to produce a lot of properly-trained teachers every year,” the chief minister said, adding that the education system would not develop by merely opening schools. He called for improving curriculum and adopting new methods of teaching.

The chief secretary informed the meeting that the education was free in the public sector, but the CM said that the students had to pay their examination fees which also needed to be paid by the government.

He directed the education department to work out a proposal in detail by collecting examination board-wise data of the students who appeared in examinations.

 “I am ready to improve the education system and improve literacy rate all over Sindh, but I need the support of every individual for this cause.”

Murad also decided to give scholarships to over 300,000 girl students all over Sindh at a rate of Rs2,500 to Rs3,500 every month.

“This must be made in a transparent manner so that the actual fruit of this scheme could be harvested by poor parents and girl students in completing their education.”