KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Education and Labour Saeed Ghani has said that the Sindh government is taking “revolutionary” steps in the field of education to ensure quality education to every child in the province.

He was speaking at a function organised by the All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association on their 30th anniversary here on Friday.

He said there was no interference by the government in the recruitment of teachers. “The teachers, who have been recruited during the last seven to eight years have been recruited on merit basis, and they are doing their job honestly. This time, too, no one, including myself, will be able to interfere in teachers’ recruitment policy. All candidates will be able to get the job only after appearing for tests and interviews according to their qualification,” he said.

He said they had made the transfer and appointment policy for teachers completely transparent and the teachers now would be able to apply for their transfer online through the e-portal when needed.

“Only those candidates who pass the test from IBA on merit will be recruited and this test will be conducted at the UC level.”

He also added that they were moving towards biometric attendance of teachers and children and work had been started in this regard.

“Private schools associations are requested to register their schools, which are not yet registered, so that we can get complete data of the children studying in our province,” he said.

Mr Ghani also added that they have completed a plan to run five out of 29 teachers’ training institutes under the public-private partnership, where teachers would be trained and admissions to these training institutes would also be on merit.

“We will guarantee government jobs to the successful teachers from these institutes,” he said.

He also explained that all expenses of their four-year education will be taken care of by the Sindh government, but in the form of loan.

“These loans will be deducted from their salaries in easy monthly instalments and no interest will be applicable on this loan,” he pointed out.

“I received the education portfolio in the first week of February 2020, but unfortunately in the last week of February that year, educational institutions had to close due to Covid-19. Since then, educational activities here have not been fully restored due to the pandemic.”

He said that there was a shortage of teachers and non-teaching staff in government educational institutions and the reason behind this was the ban on their recruitment and transfer and appointment of teachers in 2018 and 2019.

“We have also introduced a system of online classes and will expand it further so that difficulties that have befallen us during the pandemic no longer come in the way of our children’s education,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2021