KARACHI, Oct 25: The Sindh government has decided to merge all those schools or colleges which are functioning in one building or premises and close down such institutions where there are no or few students.
The administrative and financial control of the merged institutions shall be handed over to one principal or headmaster while the teaching staff of the closed down institutions shall be suitably redeployed.
The decision to this effect was conveyed on Thursday to all the concerned officers of the education department asking them for furnishing the required information of such institutions for execution of the orders.
The information sought included the name of the institution with complete address; name, designation and pay scale of the institution’s head, shift of the institution, gender-wise enrolment, teaching, non-teaching staff, number of classrooms engaged for teaching, offices; and government, non-government funds available. The information would be submitted within a fortnight.
In an urgent letter addressed to the District Officers of elementary, secondary, higher secondary, special education and colleges, the Executive District Officer, Education, Prof Mazharul Haque, said that the government had decided to streamline and reform the working of educational institutions operative in the same buildings and to provide unity of command and avoid mismanagement, indiscipline and waste of resources, one principal or headmaster/ headmistress of morning or evening shift shall be the in-charge of all the activities in a college or school.
The campus in-charge shall be responsible for all human and material resources and he shall utilize funds available for both the shifts. They shall be responsible for payment of utility bills, other expenses and all the business of both the shifts shall be done in their name.
The campus in-charge shall be authorized to use the teaching and non-teaching staff and resources of both the shifts according to the need and in the best interest of the institutions. They shall also be authorized to transfer or assign duty of the staff # from one shift to the other.
The colleges and schools, where there are no students, shall be closed down, the letter said, adding that the closure of such institutions with low enrolment might be considered, as there was no justification for more than one school in the same building or premises with low enrolment of students. All those colleges or schools, which are not operative in the evening shift shall be offered to the private parties for running primary and secondary level classes.
The principals and headmasters, taking up additional charge of evening and morning shifts, shall be given a suitable allowance in accordance with their pay.
A survey carried out recently, on the orders of the provincial minister Prof Anita Ghulam Ali, had revealed that in 17 evening colleges of Karachi, the number of enrolled students was 7000, but only 318 students were found present.
Some colleges even did not have a single student present. Besides, out of 204 teachers, hardly fifty present were present. Faculty-wise enrolment showed that in Arts XII, only four students were present out of 208, in commerce XII, 217 students out of 2665 were attending classes, whereas out of 407 students enrolled for BA-I, only seven and out of 207 students of BA-II only four students were present. — PPI
