GOVERNMENT officials and other stakeholders seem to lack sincerity and commitment to the cause of promotion of education in Pakistan. Wrong policy decisions and inefficiency makes the situation further worse.

It has been learned that the Sindh Education Foundation has closed 100 schools established under its Promoting Private Schooling in Rural Sindh (PPRS) Project without any prior notice to the owners of these schools generally known as ‘entrepreneurs’.

The reason behind closure of these schools is that the schools were established in violation of the criterion which was that no school should be set up within the radius of 1.5km of government schools. Now all these are declared in close proximity of government schools.

Interestingly, agreements were made with entrepreneurs after the third party validation. It clearly exposes credibility and reliability of such exercises.

As a result of this decision, approximately 18,000 students and 300 schools will be affected along with 100 entrepreneurs.

As the entrepreneurs have not received a budget for nine months, teachers from these schools are still waiting for their salaries.

The entrepreneurs are planning to launch agitation against the decision. Ultimately, students and parents will suffer.

This is not a well-thought-out initiative. No proper need or demand assessment appears to have been carried out. The selection criteria do not ensure that the entrepreneur has some background in the field.

Another lacuna is that there is no clear-cut plan as to how this project would continue.

The government of Sindh should now revisit the entire project with all relevant stakeholders to find long-term solutions to problems of education without being under pressure of donor agencies. Otherwise, it will be too late to do anything.

ASGHAR SOOMRO Karachi