KARACHI: More people aspiring to be teachers will now be able to go for the Bachelors in Education (Hon) and Bachelors in Elementary Education programme after the Sindh Teachers Education Development Authority (STEDA) lifted the restriction on age limit for admissions.

The decision to lift the age limit from 28 years was taken in STEDA’s 13th meeting chaired by Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani earlier in the week. The step was welcomed by singer/musician and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Goodwill Ambassador Shehzad Roy, who tweeted about it too.

Speaking to Dawn later, Roy said that through his organisation Durbeen’s teacher education project in Karachi they are seeing a great demand for the teaching field among mid-career professionals or women whose career had been put on pause due to marriage and other family matters. “We were turning them away, even though they showed a lot of passion and potential for teaching. This lifting of the age restriction by Saeed Ghani Sahab will bring [them] towards the field and ensure that in the long term, our classrooms have passionate and professional teachers,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2020