KARACHI, April 24: The Sindh government has decided to change the colour of uniform of government school students from light yellow to light blue with dark blue shirt collar. The decision was taken by Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim after a briefing given by Education Minister Dr Hameeda Khuhro.
The chief minister said that the colour and design of the uniform Might be different in some districts but a permission from him would be Required for such a decision.
Dr Rahim said that in order to ensure the standard of education, attendance of teachers, cleanliness in educational institutions he would pay surprise visits to schools.
The chief minister directed the education department to launch a publicity campaign through the electronic and print media to promote education. He said that the education department should work on a coordinated plan and to achieve the target of 100 per cent literacy rate in the province as soon as possible.
He stressed the need for a door-to-door campaign to persuade people to enrol their children in schools where education up to primary level was free and textbooks and uniforms were also being provided to children. He also directed the department to work out a plan to provide free textbooks and uniforms up to the matriculation level.
Dr Rahim said that under the new strategy, middle schools should be built in the province. However, in places where more schools were required for girls, primary schools should be set up.
He said a cell should be set up to carry out a survey in the province and prepare a report about villages where there was no school within the limit of one kilometre and this report should be certified by the MPA concerned, the education officer and the health and revenue departments.
He also called for preparing a policy to enrol retired teachers for schools in villages and in case of non-availability of retired teachers, retired educated people should be appointed in village schools to meet the shortage of teachers.
The chief minister directed that all nationalized schools be returned to their owners and uncalled for objections in this connection should be discouraged.
Earlier briefing the chief minister, Dr Hameeda Khuhro said that at present the literacy rate in the country was 44 per cent while in Sindh it was 45 per cent with 64 per cent in urban and 32 per cent in rural areas.
She said that there were 40,121 primary schools, 2,373 middle schools, 1,504 high schools and 357 colleges in the province. In primary schools, 2.6 million students were enrolled.
The education minister said that the provincial education department was spending Rs1829.99 million on non-development expenses, while Rs2231,448 million were being spent on development schemes.
Provincial education secretary Hashim Leghari said that in Sindh 5,624 schools were not functioning for want of teachers. In order to meet the shortage, recruitment had been started and furniture and scientific apparatus were being provided to educational institutions to improve the standard of education.
Sindh Chief Secretary Muhammad Aslam Sanjrani, secretary finance and other officials also attended the briefing.
