May 15, 2006	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 16, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LARKANA, May 14: With the detection of six HIV cases in Larkana, the number of such cases has soared to 124 in the district. Sources in the HIV/Aids control programme told Dawn on Sunday that new cases were identified at the surveillance centre set up at the central laboratory of the Chandka Medical College Hospital.

Blood samples for confirmation of three patients were sent to the Aids control programme in Karachi.

In March, an eight-year-old boy was detected as HIV positive which age-wise was the first case of its kind in the district.

There are scores of HIV cases in the district and most of them are said to be IV drug users and sex workers.

They are not coming to the surveillance centre for blood screening due to the stigma associated with Aids.

SEMINAR: The fast declining standard of education in Sindh is a grave problem that must be addressed on the priority basis.

This was stated at a seminar “The question of education in Sindh” held at the Knowledge Centre under the aegis of Sindh Educational Development Society on Sunday.

Prof Abdul Malik Arian presided over the seminar.

He said that the education was a basic human right which must be accorded to people.

Denying the education to anybody on any reason is tantamount to the violation of human rights, he said.

Prof Jam Jamali said that the society bereft of proper educational facilities give birth to the crime and ignorance.

It is imperative upon the government to ensure that every human settlement in the province has facilities of education for children in their area.

Prof Mukhtiar Samoo said that the education in Sindh specially in its rural areas was always exposed to dangers due to apathy of quarters concerned.

He said that the dismal picture of education could be viewed from the fact that in Sindh more that 5,000 schools were not functioning because of the shortage of teachers.

He said that it was no more secret that there were 30,000 ghost schools in the country but yet no any concrete measures were taken to check them.

He said the modern education system demanded one teacher for 20 students for better education of a child but the ratio was alarming in Sindh where there was only one teacher for more than 200 students.