KARACHI, Jan 18: The Sindh Education and Literacy Minister, Dr Hamida Khuhro, has urged the need for community participation to help the government enrol every child of school going age.

She was speaking as the chief guest at a debate organized by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) at a local hotel on Tuesday. The topic of the moot was "Budgetary allocation for primary education and administrative difficulties in Karachi".

With regard to statistics presented by the HRCP about the dropout rate of schoolchildren and other problems pertaining to the provision of basic education in the metropolis, Dr Hamdia acknowledged that quite a number of youngsters in the school going age were out of schools.

She also said there was lack of infrastructure and complaints regarding mismanagement, and that such problems had accumulated during the past several decades. "However, the present government is endeavouring to streamline affairs in the realms of education."

Dr Hamida said the government was also undertaking steps to ensure the enrolment of all youngsters in the school going. However, she stressed that the community should also play its role in this respect and help the government achieve such a goal in the shortest possible time.

The minister also called for improving the performance of the School Management Committees (SMCs), adding they had been provided sufficient amount of funds. She suggested that community members should also take interest and oversee and monitor functioning of the SMCs, so that the desired improvements could be brought about in the education sector.

Dr Hamida pointed out that a comprehensive plan had been chalked out for the training of teachers as well as headmasters. Every teacher would be provided with the opportunity to participate in a refresher course every year.

Earlier, Qazi Khizar Hayat of the HRCP maintained that some 800,000 youngsters in the school going age in Karachi were out of schools, while the dropout rate in educational institutions was high.

He said that many schools lacked adequate facilities of clean drinking water, playgrounds, while there were also complaints regarding misuse of the SMC funds. Mr Khizer urged that remedial measures be initiated to help improve the situation in the education sector. - APP