HYDERABAD, Oct 5: The Sindh Educationist Forum has said that the literacy gap and differences in the standard of education between urban and rural areas of Sindh could be gauged from the fact that there are 138 colleges in Karachi where the population is 10 million and only 100 colleges in other parts of the province for a population of around 40 million.

They said that out of the 100 colleges, only 40 were located in rural towns.

They said that most of the colleges set up by the private sector were in Karachi.

Speaking at a press conference at the press club on Thursday, forum leaders expressed concern over the deteriorating standard of education in Sindh.

SEF president Professor Sher Khan Seelro, general-secretary Shahjehan Panhwar, vice-chairman Professor Mohammad Asghar Shaikh, vice-chairman (woman) Professor Mahar Sultana Zaidi and Anwar Sagar were present on the occasion.

They said that the forum had been formed for launching a consistent struggle for improvement in the standard of education.

They said that the need of the hour was to do something practical to save education of Sindh from total destruction.

Without naming the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association, they said that an organisation of college teachers had sidelined genuine problems of teachers and used the name of the organisation to resolve personal problems of leaders.

They said that the organisation was banned by the Sindh government because it was pursuing self-serving agenda and ignoring the broader goal of solving problems related to education.

They said that the leadership of the organisation had always violated the constitution of the organisation and not a single problem of teachers was resolved during one full year.

They said that the failure of the organisation had necessitated the birth of new forum to create educational awareness in every town and village of Sindh.

They said that according to their survey from primary to university level, the situation of college education was simply alarming.

They said that they were using outdated methods of teaching due to lack of training of college teachers instead of performing the role of a facilitator which was the latest methodology of teaching.

They said that the HEC was concentrating on the training of university teachers whereas college teachers had been completely ignored in the field of research.