KARACHI Oct 20 (TNS): Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed school education department to select at least 4000 schools and provide them all the facilities within next six months for which he approved Rs6 billion.
He took this decision while presiding over a meeting of education department (schools) here at the CM House. The meeting was attended by Minister Education Jam Mehtab Dahar, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Secretary Education Iqbal Durani, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi and others.
Secretary Education Iqbal Durani giving presentation to the CM said that there were around 4000 schools which do not have the facility of washrooms. On this the chief minister said that he has been listening to the reports of missing facilities. “Please don’t repeat the things, just I am giving a target,” he asked the secretary education and went on saying select at least 4000 schools and provide them all the facilities such as compound wall, library, teachers room, lab- if necessary, washrooms, drinking water and electricity. He added that the schools where power connection was not possible giving them solar energy. Some 2500 schools would be solarized.
He said that how much this project would cost, Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem said around Rs6 billion. The chief minister approved the amount and gave the department go ahead. “I want this must be done within six months. This is a target and you have to achieve it,” he said.
The chief minister was told that the enrolment in government schools was recoded at 4249033 in 2012 and it is almost the same in 2016-17. On this the chief minister said that when the schools would have no basic facilities how parents would get their children enrolled there. ‘Once 4000 schools are holistically improved the enrolment ratio would increase automatically,” he said.
The secretary school education told the chief minister that there are 38,132 primary schools province, of them 4,303 are girls and 28,520 mixed. Middle schools are 2,241, including 545 girls and 1,377 mixed. The number of secondary schools is 1719 while 291 are higher secondary schools.
The chief minister said that against 38132 primary schools the number of middles schools which is 2241 is negligible. He directed the education department to increase the number of middle schools by giving them additional rooms. “But, the decision to upgrade primary schools to middle schools must be made on need and merit basis,” he said.
The meeting was told that the enrolment in primary schools is 2,735,156 against which 91,092 primary teachers are working. On this the chief minister said that this shows that one teacher is teaching 30 students. The e student teacher ratio is not bad but “we have to focus on capacity building of the teachers,” he said and directed Minister education to rationalize teachers transfer postings.
The chief minister directed secretary education to develop school-wise data under which number of students and teachers working there, their budget, facilities and area must be included. “I want to develop a system under which school specific data should be made available so that their problems and issued could be identified forthwith for redressal,” he said.
Syed Murad Ali Shah said that he was keen to introduce modern primary education in the province for which spade work should be e started so that it could be introduced from the next session. “Primary education is basic and foundation, if the foundation is strong the building would remain strong,” he said and went on saying therefore, latest teaching methods may be adopted.
The chief minister decided that he would be reviewing the progress of the agenda set for developing complete infrastructure of 4000 schools every fortnight.
