January 28, 2006	Saturday	Zilhaj 27, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 27: The World Bank mission on supporting provincial education sector reforms held the wrap-up meeting with the Sindh government officials with Chief Secretary Fazalur Rehman in the chair on Friday.

The mission, led by Country Director John Wall, included WB Operational Adviser Abid Hassan, Michelle Rebound, Sector Manager Education, South Asia Region and others.

On the government side the team included the secretaries of finance, education, chief economist, chief programme manager of the Reform Support Unit; and other officials.

The WB team appreciated some of the initial steps taken by the Sindh government in the context of strengthening the existing education reforms. Among others the Sindh government has established a Reform Support Unit under a senior officer for ensuring proper monitoring and coordination of reforms; a steering committee under the chief secretary has been notified for facilitating supervision of the reform portfolio and removing hurdles in this regard; the government has also provided over Rs2 billion for different incentive programmes and providing funds to the School Management Committees.

The WB team stressed the need for political support at the highest level for ensuring that the reforms remain on track.

They also insisted that the government evolved a policy mechanism for ensuring appointment of EDOs education on merit; redesigning the teacher recruitment policy for ensuring adequately qualified teachers appointed on school specific assignments; effective implementation of the incentive programme for better education outcomes. The chief secretary assured the WB officials that education reforms were central to the government’s reform agenda and that the government would take all steps for ensuring that education outcomes improved in Sindh visibly and through sustainable mechanisms.

The finance and education secretaries gave brief overviews of the progress attained on multiple aspects of the reform programme.—PPI