HYDERABAD: Sindh Minister for Education and Culture Syed Sardar Ali Shah has said that the education department will close 5,000 schools and the government will be recommended to use their buildings for community welfare purpose. He said that soon 2,600 out of the 5,000 schools would be notified as ‘closed’ [in first phase].

He was speaking to reporters after attending a programme “Latif Shanasai Jo Hafto” organised by Director Schools Education, Hyderabad region, at Sindh Museum on Saturday. He said that young generation and students must be educated about poetry of great Sufi saint Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai.

He said that education department should upgrade schools and provide necessary facilities at their buildings and that was why unviable schools would be closed. He said that government ensured transparency and merit in the recently held tests for the posts of junior elementary school teacher (JEST) and primary school teacher (PST). He said that the education department would fill 50,000 vacancies of teachers on merit.

He said that those criticising the test must at least appreciate that the tests were held purely on a merit basis and that government had laid the foundation of merit. He said that Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah gave him a freehand to hold the tests strictly on merit, and added that the party leadership asked him to make sure that no “sifarish” (unfair recommendation) or money worked in the recruitment.

He said that there were 13,000 successful candidates all coming from poor families ... they were not sons and daughters of ministers, parliamentarians and politicians.

He said that had the government not been interested in ensuring merit, 10,000 vacancies would have been filled and no one would have come to know about it. He said that government had decided to relax the general policy for these tests and these vacancies would be filled in accordingly.

About heritage sites, he said that federal government was having a heritage ministry but not a single penny was allocated for the conservation of heritage in Sindh under the federally-funded public sector development programmes. He said that he would raise this issue before the Federal Minister for Heritage Shafqat Mehmood in the inter-provincial ministers’ meeting, scheduled for Thursday (Nov 18).

Sardar Shah said that heritage of Sindh was in fact heritage of Pakistan and, therefore, federal government should come forward and work for its preservation. He said that every corner of Sindh was a heritage and archaeological site because “this is a land with 5,000 years old civilisation”.

He said that 4,000 buildings in Sindh alone were on the heritage list for protection purpose. He said that there were limited resources for their conservation and challenges were many.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2021