Sindh education department body recommendations not accepted

Sindh Education Department's steering committee has been proved powerless as its recommendations regarding education system have not been accepted by the competent authorities, it is learnt. The steering committee is headed by the Minister for Education while all Executive District Officers (EDOs) of department and some other officials are its members. According to rules, it is the competent forum of making suggestions regarding education system in the province.
During the meeting on May 7, 2011, the steering committee had recommended rescheduling of summer vacations from July 1 to August 31, 2011 instead of June 1 to July 31. The steering committee had forwarded the recommendations to Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah for approval, but after 16 days, the Chief Minister rejected the recommendations and announced summer vacations from June 1 to July 31 as per previous schedule.
Sources see this move as a result of differences between CM Qaim Ali Shah and Education Minister Mazhar-ul-Haq because the latter had complained to President Asif Ali Zardari against former Education Secretary Ms Naheed Shah Durani (daughter of CM), as a result of which she was sent on forced leave and the charge of Secretary was handed over to Waseem Ursani who is considered as apple of eye of Education Minister.
Similarly, a few months ago, the steering committee had recommended waiving off enrolment and examinations fees of classes IX, X, XI, XII of thousands of flood affected students of the province but the chairmen of educational boards, including Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Hyderabad, Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Larkana and Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Mirpurkhas, had not implemented the recommendation.
The committee of chairmen of Educational Boards had written a letter to Minister for education Mazhar-ul-Haq, saying that the boards are autonomous bodies so if they will waive off fees, they could not run their financial system because funds of fees have been used for to meet the expenditures of conducting the examinations. Thus, thousands of flood affected students had to pay their fees despite huge financial losses, and education department could not do anything in this regard.
The committee had also recommended shortening of winter vacation of last academic year 2010 by three days, but all private and public schools and colleges had not obliged it and winter vacations were held for 10 days in the December 2010 as per previous schedule.
This correspondent tried to get the version of Education Minister Mazhar-ul-Haq but he was not available in his office and was also not attending the cell number. Similarly, the Education Secretary Waseem Ursani was also not available at his office for comments in this regard.