27 October 2004	Wednesday	12 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Oct 26: The Sindh government wants to encourage public-private partnership to help raise academic standards, but will not allow making this nation-building sector a commercial venture.

This was stated by the Provincial Minister for Education, Dr Hamida Khuhro, in a meeting with office bearers of the Private Schools Management Association, Sindh at her office on Tuesday.

She acknowledged that private sector schools shared with the government the responsibility of imparting quality education, however, adding that there were certain complaints of 'extortion' in the name of donations and high fees etc.

The minister also pointed out that the mushroom growth of private schools was also causing various problems and there were public complaints in this regard as well.

She also directed the concerned officials to closely monitor both public and private schools.

She further directed for registering all private schools to ensure the implementation of fixed criteria.

Dr Khuhro called for collecting the data of private schools in detail with statistics containing the total number of schools, fees charged by them, and details of teaching staff and their salaries.

Dr Khuhro assured that the government would consider the allotment of plots to charitable and community-based schools on the condition that they would not be used for commercial purposes.

She said that teachers of private schools would also be considered for the teachers' training programmes. - APP