KARACHI, Aug 18: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim on Saturday said he would not tolerate corrupt elements in the education department, and warned of stringent action against inefficient, negligent and incompetent officials in order to improve the standard of education in the province.

He said the government was committed to eradicating illiteracy for which the budgetary allocation had been increased from Rs7 billion to Rs35 billion.

Chairing a meeting of district monitoring committees on education at the CM’s House, Dr Arbab said he had set up the committees to monitor the performance of schools and education officials.

He noted that political affiliations had been discouraged and honest people inducted into the committees.

He directed the committee members to pay surprise visits to the offices of EDOs and education departments and send the report of such visits to the CM’s House.

Stressing promotion of education, he pointed out that there was 100 per cent literacy in Sri Lanka and Pakistan would have to do its utmost to improve the situation in the country. The struggle, he added, would have to be made at all levels, especially at the provincial level.

Expressing his concern over the declining standards of education, Dr Arbab observed that people passing out from government schools used to qualify for higher positions in the past but those who were passing out from the same schools today had no such luck.

On the occasion, the chief minister issued a directive for the setting up of a monitoring committee at the provincial level with the task of looking into the reports sent by the district monitoring committees.

He also asked DCOs and EDOs to pay weekly visits to schools and send their reports to the CM’s House.

Chief Secretary Aijaz Qureshi also spoke at the meeting.—APP