KARACHI, May 31: The Sindh Assembly was on Tuesday informed that there was nothing in the Sindh Private Education Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinance-2001 and Sindh Private Education Institutions (Regulation and Control) (Amendment) Act-2003 which gave powers to the department or the registering authority to audit the accounts of privately managed institutions.
The information was given by Minister for Education Dr Hamida Khuhro while responding to a question from the PPP’s Dr Mahreen Razzak Bhutto during question hour.
Dr Khuhro, however, pointed out that as per section 10(1) of the above Act, under the annual report, the institutions were requested to furnish to the government the report on annual audit accounts of the activity of the institutions. The audit of any school could not be held as yet.
In response to another question, the minister said that the government had fixed employment quota for disabled people as per the Disable Person (Employment & Rehabilitation) Ordinance-1981, and subsequent ordinance-2001, as such disable persons would be given employment in Education and Literacy Department as and when posts were filled in.
The same policy would be followed in Jacobabad district at the time of recruitment. Therefore, the protest by a group of 115 disabled people, including women and children, was premature because the government had not made appointment in the Education & Literacy Department so far, the minister maintained.
In reply to a question asked by Ms Shazia Marri of the PPP, Dr Hamida Khuhro conceded that the Finance Department had allocated an amount of Rs5.54 million during the current financial year and released Rs2.925 million being the cost of Suzuki Cultus, at the rate of Rs585,000 each, purchased directly from the manufacturers, and Rs1.758 million being the cost of two Toyota Corolla 1300cc cars, at the rate of Rs879,000 each, purchased directly from the manufacturers, and two Honda CD70 motorcycles, at the rate of Rs54,000 each.
This was the first time, the minister said, that the vehicles had been purchased for the officers of BS-20 and BS-19 officers of the Education Department (Secretariat side).
In reply to a member’s question, Dr Khuhro told the house that there were a total of 265 elementary schools in the province of which 256 were functional. Those non-functional included one school each in Badin, Thatta, Tharparkar, Karachi and Sukkur; and two each in Sanghar and Khairpur.
She said that 5,680 posts of primary school teachers were lying vacant in the province for which 317,340 applications had been received.