KARACHI: Ajaz Ali Khan, Ombudsman Sindh held meeting with Secretary to Government of Sindh, School Education & Literacy Department to discuss progress regarding implementation of recommendations of the study Issues of Girls Education in Sindh.
The Secretary, Sindh Education & Literacy Department states that Sindh is currently facing a critical challenge in the education sector, characterized by many non-functional one room schools, which developed graveyard of schools, as there are 25,000 one room schools against total 36,000 primary schools in the province.
She expressed that it is need of the time that such non-performing schools should gradually be replaced with more effective educational facilities to address the issues of significant number of out of school children, dropout rate and gender gap.
She also emphasized that number of female teachers needs to be increased, besides taking measures to encourage girls enrolment and its retention by providing stipend, scholarships and transportation in priority Districts. Furthermore, to elevate the attendance rate of female students and teachers we have to encourage the private sector/civil society for sustainable quality education through public private partnerships.
She highlighted that keeping in view of successful experiment of construction of low-cost housing model in the recently flood affected areas it is being considered to adopt the same patron for construction of Low-Cost Community Based Schools, initially 50 schools having six (6) rooms each 20x 16. This would be at one hand cost friendly in compare to conventional RCC structure and other side also reduces the construction time and improves the quality of work.
She also expressed that one Taluka Education Officer (TEO) is dealing with budget almost 500 schools, which is neither humanly nor physically possible, therefore, it is being considered to abolish the said position by replacing with Head Teacher with proper rationalized SNE for each school for their smooth running.
Ombudsman Sindh observed that the proposals of the Secretary School Education would be helpful for implementation of recommendations of the study thereby it has been emphasized provision of physical infrastructure, female teachers in girls school, proper SNE for schools, maintaining the student teacher ratio, posting of Naib Qasid and chowkidar etc.
The Secretary School Education also pointed out that “Teacher Licensing Initiatives†is being introduced according to which persons possessing valid teaching license would be eligible to impart education and this policy has to be adopted by every school. Furthermore, Directorate of Literacy and Non-Formal Education (L&NFE) will give second chance to those girls who missed it in the first place by holding classes in the evening for the children (9 to 16 years) in schools not having second shift.
Ombudsman Sindh expressed his concern about partial availability of text books to the students in the current session and directed the Secretary School Education to ensure the availability of text books to all the students prior to start of new session. It has also been directed to carry out the survey for authentic disaggregated data of out of school children for better planning, conduct trainings for the newly appointed teachers, formulation of SMCs headed by mother, proper monitoring of teachers attendance by the M&E Wing and take appropriate disciplinary action against absconder teachers.
The Ombudsman Sindh also directed the Secretary School Education to ensure posting/replacement of retired teachers, be notified six month prior to their retirement, to avoid closing of schools and also the issues such as appointment of teachers, increasing the enrollment etc. with Education Management Organizations (EMOs) is looked into by the department.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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