BADIN, March 8: Sindh education secretary Ghulam Ali Pasha has said that at least 16,000 school buildings in Sindh are without roof, 6,000 have one room while 50,000 have no toilet facilities.

Speaking at an open kutchehry in Gulab Laghari village Matli taluka some 75 kilometres off here on Sunday, he said a sizable proportion of schools had no buildings.

He said the government had decided to appoint 17,500 teachers to meet the shortage of academic staff in schools. The secretary claimed that the government had launched a comprehensive primary education programme to improve the quality of education and atmosphere in the educational institutions and added that Rs400 million had been allocated for this purpose.

The secretary said the plan cost Rs6 billion under the DEP programme and overall goals of the project would be in quantitative terms to enrol each and every child in primary school.

He said the programme envisaged setting up of new schools and upgrading 1,200 primary school to the middle level. He said for the first time an exercise would be conducted to introduce instruments, materials and learning modules according to the needs of the schools, curriculum development, in-service teachers training programmes for the improvement of education.

The secretary announced a grant of Rs100,000 for the maintenance of Gulab Laghari village primary school. Speaking on the occasion, Sindh health secretary Ashiq Memon said the government alone could do nothing without c cooperation of the people.

He asked the philanthropists to come forward and play their due role for the betterment of education and ailing community. He said x-ray facility and ambulance service would be provided to Gulab Laghari health facility in the next financial year.