13,000 schools closed in province due to lack of teachers: minister

SUKKUR: Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani has admitted that about 13,000 schools are closed in the province due to lack of teachers and efforts are being made to rehabilitate them.

In a report submitted to the Sindh High Court, Circuit Bench, Hyderabad, on Thursday, the minister stated that there were 49,000 schools in Sindh at present but thousands of schools were closed due to the shortage of 37,000 teachers. The court ordered the chief secretary Sindh and the minister of education to submit a report within three weeks about all schools closed in the province. The chief secretary Sindh sought time from the court to improve the quality of schools and about the closed schools.

Meanwhile, Saeed Ghani later told the media that that there were 49,000 schools in Sindh at present but thousands of schools were closed due to the shortage of 37,000 teachers and said that it takes time to overhaul the whole education system. "We don't have a magic wand that can improve the condition of all schools at once."

Talking about the coronavirus, he said that initially day schools were closed and later when the devotees from Iran started to return to Sindh, then closure of schools was extended. He said the Sindh government was not hiding coronavirus cases, while social media was exploiting the coronavirus issue.

He said the Sindh government launched preventive measures to protect the people of Sindh from the virus. He said that DCs of respective districts had been made focal persons for the quarantine of returning devotees from Iran.