KARACHI, Nov 25: The provincial education authorities are confident that by hiring over 9,000 new primary school teachers they would be able to open over 6,000 schools, which have been lying closed for years in Sindh.

Officials said one of the three main reasons behind the issue was the ban on recruitment in place since 1992. The other reasons are skewed distribution of teaching staff within the districts and posting of teaching staff on administrative positions.

Sources in the department said that with the fresh hiring of some 9,000 new teachers, the teachers would be deputed to schools in the rural areas, which would also help reopen the closed schools.

Officials said the department of education was in the process of making functional all closed schools by removing anomalies and by providing adequate infrastructure to the schools.

The department, officials said, had cancelled all deputation/detailment orders, and re-posted all officials/officers serving in positions two steps higher than their grades. They said these steps of the department had already started bearing results and many schools were being formally made functional.

However, the authorities have also received reports about many schools which had been occupied by the area influentials and had become their autaqs or guest-houses.

Besides, officials said the SMCs (school management committees) had been notified to hire local, contract-based teachers from their own funds. The local education department high-ups had been asked to make functional schools through contractual and local teachers (preferably female).

The department, officials said, had received sectoral plans from several local officials in which they gave their suggestions to functionalize/rationalize staffing of their schools.