close
Thursday March 28, 2024

Identify and resolve weaknesses in education system, orders Murad

By our correspondents
October 05, 2017

Sindh’s chief minister has directed the education department to identify and resolve the weaknesses in the current system, which includes reducing the dropout rate of students and capacity building of teachers.

Reviewing the status of public education in the province, Syed Murad Ali Shah told the meeting at the CM House on Wednesday that he had declared an emergency in the education sector but the results were discouraging.

Education Secretary Aziz Uqaili said the enrolment target for primary, middle and secondary schools were set at 77, 45 and 35 per cent, against which 65, 35 and 25 per cent had been achieved. “The current literacy ratio is 60 per cent, while our target is set at 70 per cent for 2018.”

Uqaili said the National Educational Management Information System’s Pakistan Education Statistics 2014-15 stated that Sindh had 11.9 million schoolchildren between the ages of five and 16 years, of whom 6.66 million were out of school.

The primary school dropout rate was 12.6 per cent in 2014-15, but it has been reducing by three per cent every year, added the education secretary. The meeting was informed that the province had 45,555 schools in 2016-17, of which 42,383 were viable, and that enrolment in 2015-16 was 4,145,219 while it improved to 4,229,128 in 2016-17.

Similarly, in 2015-16 there were 156,216 teachers but the number reduced to 150,787 in 2016-17 because some had retired and others had resigned after the biometric attendance system was introduced.

Education Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar said that most of the school buildings in the province were dilapidated and that the roofs of majority of the schools were precarious, adding that the recent rains had further damaged them.

Dahar said an Education Works Department survey last month found 6,157 damaged or dangerous schools, which required Rs17.279 billion for repairs or reconstruction, but CM Shah called the amount “exaggerated”.

The meeting was informed that necessary measures had been taken to strengthen governance in schools, 1,016 headmasters were appointed at primary level and an education management cadre was introduced.

Expressing disappointment over the state of schools and the dropout rate, the CM directed the education department to select 15,000 primary schools as model schools, provide them with all the facilities, maintain a proper teacher-student ratio and monitor their educational process.

“Similarly, 1,000 secondary and higher secondary schools should also be selected as model schools. This is the only way to improve them in phases. But it is surprising that the government schools being managed by private partners are imparting good education.”

The meeting was informed that most of the government schools were without electricity. On this the CM asked how it was possible to produce good students when they were being forced to study without the basic necessity.

The education secretary said the K-Electric was claiming Rs119 million in electricity bills. On this the CM directed Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon to convene a meeting with KE and school education authorities to settle the bills.

“This is unacceptable. I will not tolerate power connections of schools being disconnected for want of payment. We allocate funds for electricity bills. This year the amount is Rs110 million.”

CM Shah directed the school education department to prepare a detailed plan for improving the education system and infrastructure, capacity building of teachers and curbing the dropout rate of students.