KARACHI, Nov 16: Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro said that the provincial government was making all-out efforts to improve the quality and effectiveness of education in the province.

She was speaking at the third inter-provincial conference on learning to change/improving education practices at the Reform Support Unit (RSU) Auditorium, organised by the Education Sector Reform Assistance Programme (ESRA) here on Thursday.

The minister said that the steps taken by the provincial education department to reform the education system had reinvigorated the confidence of donors and NGOs. These organisations were now joining hands with the Sindh government in its efforts to give practical shape to the slogan “education for all”, she added.

Dr Khuhro said that the target areas set by the government were improving governance through school monitoring committees, redeployment of teachers, reducing absenteeism of both teachers and the students and introducing private and community schools to help in the provision of elementary education.

She said that we were striving towards improving quality by conducting more training programmes for teachers, improving the quality of textbooks.

“We will introduce pre-primary education, extend class time to 4-5 hours per day, promote ‘adopt-a-school’ programme, rehabilitate run-down facilities and measure real learning outcomes by an assessment test”, she informed the audience.

Dr Khuhro said that the government was fully aware of the importance of availability of reliable data which could be used for future planning.

She pointed out that the government took initiative and established the Reform Support Unit (RSU), which would be the focal point where all efforts made by NGOs and donor agencies would be monitored to avoid duplication and taking stock of the interventions made by them. The Reform Support Unit will also prepare plans for the remaining parts of the province, she added.

The minister said that the USAID/ESRA had made significant contribution in the field of teachers’ training where they had trained over 18,000 primary school teachers through a consortium of partners most important of which were AKUIED, Sindh University, PITE and IRC. We hope to develop a model on similar lines for training primary school teachers in other districts as well, she added.

Dr Khuhro said that the ESRA had also implemented an ambitious school improvement plan in which 3,500 schools in the province had been given Rs120,000 through school management committees (SMCs) in seven districts of the province.

The minister expressed her satisfaction over the disbursement of funds through these SMCs. She said that the school improvement grants was invariably utilised by the community according to its priorities but she had been informed that overall 90 per cent of the cases of these grants had been utilised for the construction of additional rooms and verandas which would bring a significant improvement in the teaching and learning environment.

—APP