KARACHI, Nov 23: The Sindh Minister for Education and Literacy, Dr Hamida Khuhro, has said that the trend of escaping from teaching duties among many teachers was one of the main causes of deterioration in education
and its low quality.
She said that it would not be possible to effectively tackle these problems until a hire-and-fire policy was adopted in the education department.
She was speaking as the chief guest in the second session of a two-day workshop arranged by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industries on "Policy and Planning for Institutional Reforms in Education" held at the Federation House.
Dr Hamida said that the alarming rate of school dropouts after primary education was also a problem, which was obstructing the enhancement of the literacy rate. She announced that it had been planned to introduce integrated vocational, technical and computer skill development education to overcome the problem.
She further said that along with short term planning, a 20-year long term plan for the uplift of the educational system of Sindh was under consideration in which teacher training was being given top priority along with making the sector job and profession oriented.
Dr Hamida said that it was the only way to give those parents some incentives, who abstained from sending their children to school due to lack of employment opportunities in the government sector.
She appreciated the efforts of the FPCCI in the education sector and urged it to invest in technical, vocational and computer literacy with special emphasis on agro-based industry so that they could get highly skilled and trained manpower.
Among others, Mohammed Siddique Shaikh of the FPCCI, Tasaddaq Shahab, Dr Khadija Kazmi, Javed Ahmed also spoke. Besides, the education minister also met with German Diplomat, Bernd Borchard, Head of South Asian, German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
She was called on by the German diplomat along with Ms Verena Grafin Von Roeder, the Consul General of Germany in Karachi at her house on Tuesday. On the occasion, Dr Hamida informed the German diplomats about her planning for educational reforms and said that the system of education in Sindh required total revamping.
In this regard, she had planned comprehensive vocational, technical and computer literacy centres in at least every district headquarter. The foreign diplomats told the minister that technical education was an integrated part of their educational system, adding that they too were now working to enhance the standard of their universities.
They said that inferior educational standard and water scarcity in Pakistan were main concerns for Germany, and that Sindh was the worst affected by both problems. They announced that Germany would extend all possible help to the people of Pakistan in this regard.
Dr Hamida welcomed their offer and said that the cooperation of the German government would benefit the people of the region and also strengthen ties between both countries. - APP
