Sindh to continue 50pc attendance policy for students: Saeed Ghani

The Government of Sindh has decided against acting on the recommendation of the federal administration that all educational activities may be resumed with full attendance starting on Monday (today).

Addressing a news conference at his camp office on Sunday, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani said that the last meeting of the steering committee had decided to reopen the province’s educational institutions in strict compliance with the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Ghani said that keeping in view the state of the public and private institutes, the meeting had also decided that only 50 per cent of the students would take classes on any given day. He referred to the federal education minister’s recent announcement that educational institutions across Pakistan can now resume 100 per cent attendance, and that they should continue to comply with the SOPs.

The provincial minister pointed out that on the one hand the federal minister is allowing the resumption of 100 per cent attendance, but on the other, he also wants continued compliance with the SOPs. How can social distance be maintained with full attendance, asked Ghani.

He said that Sindh’s educational institutions would continue the 50 per cent student attendance policy. He admitted that the number of Covid-19 cases had fallen in the province, but pointed out that the threat was still present.

“Until the Covid-19 threat is completely eradicated, educational institutions across the province will continue to comply with the SOPs with 50 per cent student attendance.”

Teachers’ shortage

Ghani said that there is a shortage of teachers in Sindh, adding that the government has issued advertisements for 37,000 vacant posts of teachers. He said that the cabinet has approved the recruitment of teachers, adding that an agreement in this regard has also been signed with the IBA Sukkur.

The minister said that primary school and junior school teachers will be hired, adding that the policy has been changed, so primary school teachers will be hired at grade 14 instead of grade nine, while their minimum educational qualification must be graduate.

He said that additional marks will be given to BEd and MEd holders from Sindh, adding that recruitment will be done completely on merit and at union council level, so the successful candidates will be hired according to the number of vacancies in their respective UCs.

Transfer, posting

Ghani said that for the posts of female teachers, women will be eligible on their husband’s domicile and permanent residence certificate so that the difficulties in their transfer and posting can be resolved later.

He said that the government has also removed the ban on transfer and posting, and decided to divide the application eligibility into three categories, with the applications to be filed through an e-portal.

He explained that in the red category are the schools where there are more teachers than students, so the teachers falling in this category will be able to apply for a transfer throughout the year.

He said that in the yellow category are the schools where the number of teachers is more than the number of students, while in the green category are the schools where the number of teachers is less than the number of students.

The minister said that the teachers falling in the yellow and green categories will not be able to transfer to the red-category schools, while they will be able to submit their applications directly through the e-portal after the next academic year starts this August. He said that 7,000 schools in the province were closed due to restrictions on transfer and posting of teachers, so teachers would be posted there to reopen them immediately.

Complete data

Ghani said that all the schools in the province are now visible on the global positioning system, so the government will have complete data on all the institutions with a click, such as a school’s location and its condition.

He said that the government has assigned six of the 29 teacher training institutes of the province under public-private partnership for the training of teachers, adding that work is also under way for on-the-job training of teachers.

The minister said that the government has planned clusters of 6,000 schools, so that within two kilometres of a primary school is an elementary or secondary school. He pointed out that this strategy will help students, especially girls, continue their education after primary level. He said that 2,000 schools need to be constructed to implement the plan, adding that efforts for this are already under way.

Ghani said that 9,000 schools of the province have an enrolment of 80 per cent, so the work to provide them with all the basic facilities has been started in two phases, with many of the schools already completed.

Regarding the shortage and transfer of officers, he said: “We’re trying to fill the gaps where there is a shortage of officers, and of non-teaching and teaching staff.” He pointed out that due to Covid-19, educational institutions were closed for a whole year, so the government was facing difficulties due to the non-functioning of the Sindh Public Service Commission.