KARACHI, April 27: The Sindh Education and Literacy Minister, Dr Hamida Khuhro, on Wednesday said the government, while according top priority to training of teachers, was revamping teacher training institutes and colleges besides reviewing certification courses.

She was speaking at a discussion held at the Institute of Educational Development (IED) with education experts and 56 master trainers from government educational institutes, who were sent to the United States for training in collaboration with the Aga Khan Foundation and the USAID.

Dr Hamida termed teachers training as the shortest way of improving the standard of education, and said the most important reason behind the declining standard of education was ignoring training of teachers.

She said Sindh was facing great difficulties in improving the state of its government-run educational institutes, as over 40,000 primary schools there lacked basic facilities like clean drinking water and toilets.

“Majority of schools are of two rooms only. Some are without proper buildings and those having buildings are without water and electricity,” she deplored.

The minister view that owing to the poor standard of education, intelligent teachers were also unavailable, adding that a majority of educated youths took up teaching as part-time employment.

But, the Sindh Education Department, she said, had discouraged the said trend, and it was paying attention towards teachers training in the first phase. “Currently, we are emphasizing on training the headmasters of government schools, as trained headmasters can run the affairs of schools more efficiently,” she said.

In addition, the PTC and CT courses were also being reviewed to improve the standards of teachers’ training.

She expressed hope that teachers returning from the US would play an active role in the enhancement of educational standard in the province.

Director PITE Nawabshah Mushtaq Ahmed Shahani, Head of IED Dr Sadaruddin, Dr Muhammad Arif, Ambreen Arif, Iqbal Ahmed Jatoi and others also spoke.—PPI