KARACHI, March 26: About 6,000 villages in Sindh have no schools and 3.3 million children could not enrolled in the province due to poverty and non-availability of schools. This was revealed by Education Secretary Mohammad Hashim Leghari at a reception on Friday night. He said with a view to overcome this situation, the government had planned to open new schools and ensure free provision of textbooks and uniform from primary to intermediate levels The secretary stated that his department had plans to setup libraries with at least 500 books in the schools to develop reading habit among the students and teachers. Moreover, English would be introduced as a compulsory subject from the primary level with the commencement of new academic session. He said every possible effort was being made to ensure transparency and merit in the recruitment of teachers in Sindh. Mr Leghari further told that two cadet colleges for female students had also been planned and the federal government had been approached to provide funds for the projects.

Mr Leghari assured that the demand for the establishment of polytechnic institute at Sachal Goth would be considered.

Prof Saleh Shaikh, Wahid Bukhsh Bhutto, Prof Ali Anwar Baladi, Ghulam Rasool Babar, Karam Illahi Channa, Rab Nawaz Bhutto and others also spoke.?PPI