KARACHI, Sept 12: About 3,700 schools in Sindh are not operational owing to a shortage of teaching staff.

This was stated by provincial Minister for Education Irfanullah Marwat during question hour in the Sindh Assembly on Friday. He also told the House that the government was planning to introduce a bill to make Sindhi a compulsory subject.

The question hour consumed much of the time of the House after points of order. Owing to this, other matters on the order of the day could not be taken up. Today’s proceedings also commenced late due to some misgivings among the Sindh National Alliance members.

Mr Marwat informed the House that recruitment in grade 1 to 16 would be initiated soon so that teaching staff could be provided to the schools which were lying closed. He said that advertisements in this regard would be released in two weeks time.

Owing to lack of planning while establishing schools, we are facing problem of having seven schools in a village whereas in some union councils, 23 schools were established. Due to a shortage of teaching staff, the purpose of imparting education is not served properly, the minister maintained.

He also informed the House that there were 41,000 primary and 2,600 middle schools in Sindh. It has been decided to bridge the gap by upgrading some of the primary schools where additional staff would also be provided to teach middle school students. He said that in Malir, 14 primary schools had already been upgraded to middle school level.

He told the House that chief minister had already declared that no fee would be charged for computer education in these provincial institutions.

He said that there were 1,088 educational institutions run by NGOs where 33,000 students, who worked during day time, were being educated. In addition, there are 216 adult literacy centres operating under district governments.

Mr Marwat said that the Sindh government had approved Rs500 million for the purchase of furniture and other equipment but merger of Education Works Department with the Works and Services Department had created problems for both the departments. He said that it was not possible for the education ministry to revert to the previous structure.

The government is taking necessary steps to promote computer education and literacy all over the province and computers are being provided to educational institutions. He said that equipment had been provided to Mithi Mono-technical College whereas the district government Mithi had been advised to provide computers to the institution from the ADP 2003-2004 funds. He told a questioner that there was no gender discrimination in adult education.

During today’s proceedings, the opposition members also raised the issue of non-implementation of development schemes worth five million rupees in their constituencies.

Leader of the opposition Nisar Khuhro, pointing out that projects for only Karachi had been announced, demanded that the same should be done for the interior of Sindh. Ali Mardan Shah said that in Mirpurkhas, projects had only been announced not initiated as yet.

Dr Bhagchand said that minorities had proposed projects for the renovation and rehabilitation of temples, but no decision in this regard had been taken so far. Bano Saghir alleged that only those projects had been approved which had been identified by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement MPAs whereas the PPP MPAs were being discriminated against.

The MMA’s parliamentary party leader Maulana Umar Sadiq claimed that in spite of being provided with all details, the projects worth Rs0.9 million had been advertised. Ayaz Soomro alleged that Larkana district had been ignored in the MPAs’ scheme. Zahid Bhurgari demanded announcement of a Rs12 billion package for Hyderabad in addition to the MPAs’ scheme.

Replying to the points, Minister for Planning and Development Shoaib Bokhari said there were some difficulties owing to district governments and held out the assurance that the provincial government would do its best to implement these schemes because there was no discrimination between government and the opposition members.

Responding to the point of order raised by Mohammad Rafiq, the minister said that tenders for the schemes would be invited in the last week of this month.

Maulana Umar Sadiq claimed that the Bengalis living here after the fall of East Pakistan were not being issued computerized NICs owing to which they were facing great difficulty in obtaining passport.

Hafiz Naeemur Rahman of the MMA protested against the issuance of arms licence to one Allah Bachayo, a clerk of the Sindh Assembly who, he claimed, was shown as an MPA.

Mr Irfanullah Marwat raised the issue of regularization fee for kutchi abadis and called for a review of the whole matter because under the Sindh Revenue Act, this was provincial government’s jurisdiction. He was critical of the city government’s proposal to charge Rs6,000 per square yards from dwellers of Akhtar Colony, Mahmoodabad and Azam Basti. He said that the residents of these localities were poor and two former prime ministers had made announcements for the regularization of these kutchi abadis. He opposed the City government’s proposal in this regard.

Minister for Zakat Dr Irfan Gul Magsi complained of water theft in the areas under the control of growers’ organizations.

Dr Magsi, in reply to a point raised by opposition member Nuzhat Pathan, said that he would make a statement on the floor of the House on Monday with regard to the issue of Jumman Shah’s Mazar near Karsaz on Sharea Faisal.

The Speaker adjourned the session till Monday morning.