KARACHI: Conceding that most transfers and postings of teachers were made on ‘political basis’, Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah asked members of the provincial assembly not to get any teacher transferred for at least one year.

Furnishing statements and replies to written and verbal queries of lawmakers in the provincial assembly during Question Hour on Tuesday, he sought cooperation of treasury and opposition members to bring improvements in the education system in the province.

He agreed to the suggestion of Pakistan Peoples Party member Malik Asad Sikander that there should be a law regarding transfer and postings of teachers.

Responding to a question raised by Grand Democratic Alliance’s member Arif Mustafa Jatoi, the minister said that the transfer and posting of teachers of grade-16 and below was not allowed from their home district to another district except in case of mutual transfer or under wedlock policy.

Replying to another question, asked by opposition member Rabia Azfar Nizamani, he said that there were a total of 144,262 teachers employed with the school education and literacy department. “Taking the basic profile data through biometric system, these teachers are monitored by directorate general (monitoring and evaluation) on monthly basis”, he added.

Responding to a supplementary question, he said that there were as many as 336 monitoring assistants to check the presence of teachers through biometrics.

Replying to another question raised by Ms Nizamani, he said that the Sindh Teachers Development Authority (STEDA) had developed draft Teacher’ Licensing Policy with the collaboration of researchers of Aga Khan University’s Institute of Educational Development that had conducted various consultative seminars with stakeholders.

“Now STEDA has initiated the process of hiring consultancy about teachers’ licensing mechanism and implementation plan,” Shah said.

Responding to another question, he said that the provincial government had taken initiative for rehabilitation and provision of missing facilities such as toilets, boundary walls, drinking water, electricity, furniture and construction of over 9,500 additional classrooms in over 4,500 schools.

“The initiative is expected to provide space for over 550,000 additional students”, the minister said adding that the additional enrolment at primary and post-primary levels would be a major achievement of the provincial government.

He said that as many as 57 development schemes were approved on Feb 24, 2018 at the cost of Rs20.109 billion to implement the initiative.

Separately, he said that there were 12 million schoolgoing children in the province. He said that over 4.5 million children were enrolled in government school, while over 3.2 million were in private schools.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2019