KARACHI, Dec 23: The Sindh education department has decided to cut the Information technology fee by 50 per cent for college and higher secondary school students.
Sources in the department attributed the change in the government’s policy to the reaction by students and others concerned.
So far the education department has not been able to ensure implementation of IT education as a compulsory subject throughout the province, and many colleges and higher secondary schools remain without computer laboratories despite the passage of considerable time.
When contacted, secretary education, Sindh, Nazar Hussain Mahar, said the government decided to charge a one-time IT fee from students for a two-year education period at colleges and higher secondary schools.
He said that students who had paid Rs1000 at the time of admission this year for the newly introduced IT compulsory education would not be needed to pay the fee again next year.
Similarly, he continued, the students who would be admitted in Intermediate first year classes at colleges/higher secondary schools would be charged Rs500 instead of Rs1000.
He informed that the government intended to reduce further the IT fee in the years to come.
To another question, he said that there would be no IT examinations for the first year students in the year 2002 and a combined (part-I and II) annual examination would be held in the year 2003 for those admitted to class XI in 2001.
He said that the decision had been taken in view of the inadequate computer education facilities in educational institutions of the Sindh, majority of which were not in a position to conduct practical classes for IT.
The secretary informed that all the educational boards had decided not to hold IT theory and practical examinations for the new intake during the year 2002.
He said that the policy of combined exams would continue till the time IT education facilities were improved at all the educational institutions of the province.
He said that so far the government had been able to set up computer labs at 40 colleges in Karachi, which were in addition to the 10 labs established with government funding last year. He hoped that by the end of February all the 94 colleges operating in day or morning shifts would possess computer laboratories for the purpose of IT education.
Sources in the department said that in order to overcome the fund problems, the government had advised the higher secondary schools in Karachi and educational institutions in other parts of the province first to manage computers from their own funds, otherwise look for loans from other government educational institutions, or seek public-private partnership for the purpose.
