SUKKUR: Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, has said the government is establishing a community college in Saleh Pat taluka with the cooperation of Sukkur IBA at an estimated cost of Rs300 million to provide an opportunity to rural children to get standard education.

He said that during a visit of 26 schools in the district, he observed that 16 schools were without teachers and students were sitting in the open. It was a matter of grave concern that the children wanted to study but the teachers had no interest in imparting them education, he added.

Mr Shah was speaking to officers of the district education department at the district council hall here on Friday.

He requested teachers to consider the nation’s children as their own offspring and impart them quality education. “Our towns and cities and the country cannot develop until standard of education has been raised,” he said.

He said that he alone could not do anything to raise standard of education unless all teachers and education officers of the district put in their best for the noble cause.

Mr Shah said that teachers’ job was a sacred duty to the nation as they shaped children into better citizens. The future of the new generation rested with the teachers, therefore, they should perform their duties with utmost sincerity and honesty and play an effective role in getting the closed schools opened, he said.

He said that Sindh was more advanced than Bombay in 1940’s in education sector as it produced renowned personalities even from the small towns like Naushahro Feroze, Diplo, Phat and Shikarpur during that period but unfortunately education sector of the province was declining day by day these days.

He praised Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui for his commitment and dedication to education and his achievement to raise the ranking of the Sukkur Institute of Business Administration (IBA) to number three among Pakistani universities. Why all teachers could not emulate him and produce such results, he asked.

Mr Shah said earlier at a ceremony for distribution of laptops among students under Sindh government’s Talent Hunt Programme at Sukkur IBA that the institution had not only earned a good name in the country but also abroad for its best performance.

He said after watching a tableau presented by IBA students about plight of orphans that a multi-storey building would soon be built in Sukkur at a cost of Rs130 million to take care and look after orphans.

Sukkur Deputy Commissioner Shahzad Tahir Thaheem said on the occasion that no society could achieve progress without education. In the common interest of the betterment of education in the district, all stakeholders would have to play their role for the noble cause, he added.

Director Education Zaibun Nisa Mangi and District Education Officer Ms Nuzhat Bukhari said that 5,049 schools were functioning properly in the district with an enrolment of 148,397 girls and boys.

Mr Shah said at the inauguration of blood donation campaign at the Sukkur Blood & Drugs Donation Society of which he is also chairman of the board of governors, that Sindh had made a record of sorts by transfusing blood to 3,000 children in a day.

The record had been sent to the authories of the Guinness Book of World Records which was made possible by thousands of workers of PPP who donated blood as an expression of their love and respect for their slain leader on the occasion of her birth anniversary, he said.

Published in Dawn, June 28th , 2014