HYDERABAD, Aug 17: District government in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation Pakistan has developed a three-year District Education Plan to enrol more children in schools and eliminate child labour from the bangle industry of Hyderabad, said the district Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil.

About 35 per cent of the budget was being spent on education, he said during a meeting with education department’s officials and the ILO team at his secretariat, on Thursday.

He regretted that despite spending a big chunk of budget on education results were not so encouraging.

A committee headed by the DCO had been constituted to pay surprise visits to schools and check utilisation of funds, attendance of teachers and students, and facilities such as the condition of classrooms i.e., benches, fans and availability of drinking water, said the district Nazim.

The DCO during a surprise visit to schools on Thursday found only four teachers present out of the total 40 at some schools, he informed. Kanwar Naveed said in the past a campaign was launched wherein absent teachers were suspended, their salaries stopped and many transferred to make them more responsible.

The district government plans to appoint an educational consultant who will assess and evaluate the system, study needs and problems and suggest ways and means to improve the quality of education, he said.

The ILO Consultant Fawad Usman apprised the participants of District Education Plan which was prepared in 2004 and initiated for implementation a year later.

“There are four Talukas and 52 Union Councils in Hyderabad district with the literacy ratio at 55.3 per cent with 150 literacy centres of the Education Department, 200 of the NCHD, and 50 of the ILO-NRSP” he said adding: ‘Besides this the ILO is also running 108 centres with the completion of all requirements at 60.

The DCO Hyderabad Aftab Ahmed Khatri laid stress on imparting skill-oriented education to children of poor parents enabling them to earn their livelihood.