KARACHI: Provincial Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah on Saturday said the private schools’ administration would have to give preference in appointment to the teachers who obtained teaching licence.

Addressing a press conference, he said the teachers would now have to pass an exam to obtain teaching licence similar to doctors and engineers after the approval of the teaching licence policy.

“This will benefit the entire education system, not just teachers and students,” he said and added that Sindh was the first province in the country to develop the teaching policy for the betterment of education and urged other provinces to also work on the policy.

School Education Secretary Ghulam Akbar Leghari, renowned social figure Shahzad Roy from Zindagi Trust and Aga Khan University’s Institute of Education Development Dean Farid Panjwani were also present.

The education minister said junior school teacher who were in Grade-14 would be automatically promoted to Grade-16 after obtaining the teaching licence.

Sardar Shah said that the training and continuous learning process for the recruited teachers would greatly benefit from the licensing policy.

He said that over 5,000 schools had been reopened after the recruitment of teachers and over 400,000 new children had enrolled in government schools.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2023