KARACHI: Sindh govt mulls check on teachers’ institutes
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, Dec 7: Sindh Education department is contemplating to tighten noose against the privately-run elementary teachers’ training institutes in the province as many of these were allegedly failing to impart quality education.
According to sources in the department, authorities are of the view that immediate measures be taken to check the alleged malpractices and violations of the policies set by the government regarding the Certificate in Teaching (CT) and Primary School Teaching Certificate (PTC) courses, which are must for securing a school teacher job, at least at government-run schools.
Private institutes should be discouraged to admit more students than the sanctioned seats, otherwise the students churned out by these institutes would be another addition to the incompetent teachers appointed and posted at some educational institutions, with the help of their political connections, a senior college teacher suggested.
It was viewed that most of the private elementary colleges were failing to provide quality education and were working with the sole motive of making money. In this regard, the role of educational boards, responsible for affiliating the colleges in question, was important.
According to the information garnered by this scribe, out of 1,207 candidates having appeared in the PTC examination this year, under the Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi, 606 were from the private colleges. On the other hand, a total of 918 candidates appeared in CT examinations, out of which 556 were from private institutions.
One of the private colleges sent up 144 students, while it was allowed to admit only 100 in PTC course, while another college sent up 149 against its limit of 60 admissions.
In the case of CT examinations, as per a BIEK source, 184 candidates appeared in board examination from an institute which was allowed to admit 30 students only, while another college, authorized to admit 50 students sent up 133 for examination.
A Sindh government document said that there were 23 government and 13 private elementary colleges functioning in the province for CT and PTC education and training. The current enrolment at private college was 1,581 students against the allocated 1,330 seats, while in the case of government colleges, the enrolment of male and female students reached 2,408.
As far as enrolment at government colleges was concerned, it was said to be critically low at some places, which could be attributed to their strict adherence to government policies and prescribed educational programmes. The student-teacher ratio at the government institutes for male students was 4.1 to 1, while it was 8.8 to 1 at the government-run female colleges, added the document.
The admission policy for private colleges, as formulated by the Committee of Chairmen (COC) of all educational boards of the province, required of the respective managements of institutions to ensure that candidates being admitted were holding PRCs and domicile certificates of Sindh province. The minimum qualification for PTC course was Matric, at least in C-grade (45 per cent) and for CT courses, it was at least Intermediate in C grade, with age limit of 17 years (minimum) and 25 years (maximum).
After an exercise, the Sindh education department had also constituted a committee to monitor and regulate these privately managed institutes and on its recommendation seats were also allocated for each college for PTC and CT admissions.
According to department’s report, there were six private colleges teaching PTC course in Karachi, Hyderabad and Larkana, which have admitted two to three times more students than the allocated seats. One of the colleges at Larkana gave 164 admissions against 40 allowed seats, it said.
The situation was not different in the case of CT courses as well. Interestingly, an unregistered college in Larkana district has admitted about 150 students to PTC and CT programmes.
In addition to giving more admissions than the allocated seats, the private colleges were also accused of admitting students not having Sindh domicile or not fulfilling the age criteria set up for admissions by the government.
A source in the educational circles said that the private colleges attracted the students, including those already serving in the government educational institutions, as they showed leniency regarding admission criteria and other government rules.
