KARACHI, Aug 17: The Sindh Minister for Education and Literacy, Dr Hamida Khuhro, has said the government would provide training costing Rs50 million to around 30,000 School Management Committees (SMCs) of the province to ensure that these functioned in an effective manner.

She pointed out that the government released Rs450 million annually to the SMCs through district governments for the betterment of schools including the provision of missing facilities to these.

Talking to reporters on Wednesday, Dr Hamida further stated that the said amount had been increased as the scope of these SMCs had been widened in the current year from primary to secondary level.

She added that there were reports that these funds were not being utilised properly.

Dr Hamida informed that the Decentralised Elementary Education Project (DEEP) and the Sindh Textbook Board had been brought on the right track.

She said an enrolment drive was being carried out throughout Sindh to enrol all children in the school-going age into schools. Currently, almost half of the school-going children population is out of schools.

She said though they were expecting an eight to 10 per cent increase in enrolment; however, there was great response from parents, and around 0.4 million children had reportedly been admitted.

Dr Hamida pointed towards lack of facilities in schools, and said work was needed to be done on war-footing bases to accommodate newly enrolled children by providing them furniture, books, etc.—APP