LARKANA, Sept 16: Sindh Education and Literacy Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro has said that the ban imposed on teachers’ unions will not go as they (unions) have been involved in blackmailing that has drastically affected education in the province.

She was speaking at a function held to distribute cheques among girls students of class XI under the Decentralised Elementary Education Project (DEEP) of the Larkana and Qamber-Shahdadkot districts here at Government Pilot Higher Secondary School Larkana on Saturday.

She said the government would not compromise on its decision as the ban had received a positive response from society.

The minister said Rs140 million was being spent on DEEP that had taken off in its real sense. People had wrong impression about the project in the past, she added.

She said ‘qualitative’ education was the only answer to compete in the world. Pakistan had lagged behind in the world of education and its development demanded untiring efforts to improve the system, she said.

She said that keeping in mind the good performance of teachers’ hiring on contract, the government would soon introduce this ‘contract system’ in the department.

She said that to bring at par the rural areas with urban one, the Sindh government had introduced rural teachers allowance in the current budget.

Speaking on the occasion, Sindh DEEP Director Inamullah Dharajo said that under the programme, 1,200 elementary schools would be upgraded in the province. Of them, he said, 700 would be that of girls and added it was reported that due to poverty, girls dropout in the province was 35 per cent while in remote areas, this ratio had increased up to 52 per cent.

With the introduction of this programme, the dropout ratio would go down, he claimed.

He said that under poverty-cum merit scholarships, Rs140 million had been earmarked and this five-phased programme would take four years to reach completion.

The scholarships would be discontinued if the recipients had failed to improve their studies, he said and added that under the programme 1,000 girls students had qualified the examination and they would continue receiving scholarships of Rs3,500 per month for four years.

Later, she distributed 69 cheques of Rs2, 41,500 among the students from Larkana, Ratodero, Bangaldero, Dokri, Qamber, Shahdadkot, Warah, Nasirabad, Wagan and Mirokhan talukas.

Erum Naz of the Government Girls Degree College Larkana has secured the first position, Sammar of the same college second while Bibi Fatima Daughter of the Government Girls High School Warah stood third.