Zeeshan Azmat
Karachi: Senior Minister for Education and Literacy Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq said on Tuesday that female staff would be appointed to all girls’ colleges in Sindh and any male staff working in those colleges would be transferred.
He also issued directives for the construction of a teaching staff hostel at each girls’ college so that teachers coming from far-flung areas to teach at the institute had a proper accommodation.
The minister was chairing a meeting of the Sindh Education Department’s Annual Development Programme. The meeting discussed several schemes for the education sector for the year 2011-12.
He was informed of projects of elementary and secondary schools as well as colleges. He expressed his dismay at delays in the completion of a number of schemes, and directed the authorities to report to him when the projects were completed.
According to the education minister, the authorities concerned had also failed to construct proposed colleges in interior Sindh. He warned that departmental inquiry would be ordered against those responsible.
Haq was informed that nine colleges were built in Karachi during the previous governments and there was no need to construct colleges in those areas. The attendance of students also remained low and those institutions were of no use, he remarked.
The education minister directed the secretary education to convert such colleges into arts, commerce and science departments so that locals could get some benefits. He said the government was following the vision of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and wanted to give standard education to the women.
There was no college for women in Jacobabad, Thatta, Umerkot, Dadu and other districts, he said and added that the Education Department should make sure that girls living in these areas were provided with colleges so that they could also obtain education.
The regional director colleges should visit one college every day and submit a report to the offices of the Education Department, he said. Those who did not visit colleges would face departmental inquiry, he warned.
Haq issued directives to Director Colleges Dr Nasir Ansar in this regard.
Furthermore, he said that old schemes should be completed along with the newly-launched projects. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the quality of the buildings of schools run under the city and local bodies system. “The government gives Rs100 million per month to the zonal and local body government. But, unfortunately the amount was never properly used in the education sector run by these alternative authorities,” he said.
He criticised the policies of the former dictator, and said that handing over the education system to the city government was not a good decision. He asked civil society and media to play a major role in exposing “ghost teachers”.
The education minister noted that the government employees were also working in the electronic and print media.
Source: The News
Date:4/27/2011
