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HYDERABAD, Dec 14: The Sindh chapter of the Islami Jamiat-i-Tuleba has claimed that 93.02 per cent voters have rejected the affiliation of government-run education boards with privately-run Aga Khan Education Board in a referendum held by the IJT throughout the country.
Speaking at a news conference at the press club on Tuesday, the nazim of the Sindh IJT, Mr Kashif Shaikh, said the IJT had set up 140 camps and students and people of more than 60 cities, 80 colleges and 1,000 schools took part in the referendum.
He said about 918,855 people expressed their view through ballot. Of them 854,722 cast their votes against the Aga Khan Board. Mr Shaikh, who is also vice-president of the Sindh Shagird Alliance, a conglomerate of ten students' organizations, said that according to the ordinance, the Aga Khan Board would cover the whole country and would prepare its own syllabus.
He pointed out that the entire syllabus would be changed in 10 years. He claimed that Islamiat had been excluded from the syllabus and in its place ethics had been included to make it secular.
Not only this, he said, the Aga Khan Board had been given full authority to determine admissions and examination fees. Mr Shaikh said that although the existing boards of education had rejected the setting up of the Agha Khan Board but eventually they would have to get themselves affiliated with the board.
He said after affiliation, students would have to pay Rs3,000 as registration fees and Rs4,000 as examination fee. Contrary to this, he said, the present registration fee in government educational institutions was Rs300 and examination fee between Rs700 and Rs900.
He said students with insufficient means would be deprived of their right to education due to inordinate increase in fees. Mr Shaikh claimed that the USAID had announced 45 million dollars for the establishment of the Agha Khan Board.
He said the IJT had started a country wide movement against the secularization of educational system. Acknowledging social welfare work of the Ismaili community, the IJT leader said that it should refrain from distorting the ideology of Pakistan.
GSTA: The Government Secondary Teachers Association has demanded that the government should withdraw its decision to hand over the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Hyderabad to the Aga Khan Board.
At its Latifabad taluka meeting held here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Iqbal Khan, the GSTA rejected privatization and secularization of government boards.
The district president, Mr Safar Memon, and general secretary, Mr Zamir Khan, also attended the meeting. The meeting also opposed the training of teachers by NGOs and demanded that this responsibility be given to the Sindh education ministry.
FARMERS HELP SOUGHT: The DCO has appealed to farmers to participate in implementation of the national programme for lining and improvement of watercourses.
Inspecting the first lined watercourse 4R of the Matiari Minor near Sekhat here on Monday, DCO Mohammad Hussain Syed said the project could be successfully implemented only through participation of stakeholders.
He said the project was aimed at improving living standards of people of rural areas who were suffering due to shortage of water. He observed that losses sustained due to water crisis shortage could be curtailed by lining watercourses.
He said chances of seepage, leakage, water theft would also be reduced and farmers would get at least 30 per cent more water. He said out of 3,000 watercourses to be lined in four years, 254 would be lined with farmers' participation during the current financial year.
The DCO directed officers concerned to maintain full supply level in minors and warned that action would be taken against those who were found negligent in implementation of the project.
He asked the officers to pay frequent visits to fields, keep close coordination with farmers and inform them about the importance and implementation procedure of the project so that the target could be achieved before the scheduled time.
