Senior Minister Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq, who holds the portfolio of education, also informed the house during the question-hour session that Karachi was the most literate district of Sindh with the literacy rate of 78.1 per cent.

Replaying to a question, the minister said that according to a survey report for the year 2006-07, Karachi was followed by Sukkur where literacy rate was 63.6 per cent. Naushero Feroze was the third most literate district of the province with 58.1 per cent followed by Shikarpur 55.9 per cent.

The house was told that Hyderabad (including Tando Allahyar, Tando Muhammad Khan and Matiari) and Jacobabad (including Kandhkot and Kashmore) were the least literate districts of the province with 52.5 per cent and 33.8 per cent literacy rate, respectively.

In reply to another question raised by MPA Syeda Marvi Rashdi, the senior minister stated that there were 10,670 private schools in Sindh, including 5,922 schools which were in Karachi alone. The number of unregistered schools in Sindh was 1,543, he added.

Giving a district-wise figures of the private educational institutions in the province, the minister said that there were 878 registered and 336 unregistered schools in Hyderabad, 441 registered and 65 unregistered in Sukkur, 307 registered and 56 unregistered in Mirpurkhas while the lowest number of private schools was in District Kambar with 60 registered and 10 unregistered.

In reply to the question of Nadeem Bhutto, the house was informed that total 5,885 teachers had been recruited amongst the successful candidates from the tests conducted by the Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur.

They include 4,499 primary school teachers (PSTs), 963 junior school teachers (JSTs) and 433 high school teachers (HSTs).

In Karachi, 884 PSTs, 75 JSTs and 94 HSTs had been recruited while the lowest number of recruits was in Ghotki and Tharparkar districts. A total of 51 teachers were recruited in each district, including 37 PSTs, five JSTs and nine HSTs in Ghotki and 44 PSTs, three JSTs and four HSTs in Tharparkar.

The minister told the house that out of 212 colleges of the province, 33 colleges were being headed by the teachers of lower grades (BS-18) as the in charge principals as there was a shortage of officials of Grade 19. However, recently 395 college teachers had been promoted to Grade-19 and they would replace those having lower grades, he added.

In response to a question posed by Shamim Ara Panhwar, the house was informed that according to the census conducted by the education department in 2007-08, 7,575 schools were found closed in the province.

In reply to a question of Humera Alwani, the house was informed that during the previous government, a total of 111 teachers were given out-of-turn promotions in three districts — 93 in Dadu, 17 in Shikarpur and one in Sukkur — which were cancelled by the present government. However, some teachers challenged it and secured a stay order against the withdrawal of their promotions.

Responding to the question of Arif Mustafa Jatoi, the house was informed that the highest number of youths active in the scouts movement was in Karachi with 20,000 followed by Sukkur (10,000) while the lowest number of scouts was in Jamshoro (435). The number of scouts in Kashmore was 450, Tando Muhammad Khan 576, Shikarpur 497 and Hyderabad 792 while in other districts the number was over 1,000.

Earlier, Speaker Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, who called the house in order almost two-and-half hours behind the schedule at 11.50am, at the outset expressed his displeasure over the daily routine of starting the session late by almost two hours.

He asked Law Minister Ayaz Soomro to see Rule 29(ii)-b from the rules of procedure in which the time for business was 12 noon on Friday and as such it was time to adjourn the session for Saturday. However, on the request of the law minister and Muttahida Qaumi Movement's Shoaib Bokhari, he agreed to take up the question-hour session only.

During question-hour session many members criticised the education policy of successive governments during the last 20 years and observed that due to nepotism, violation of merit and malfunctioning of the education department, the standards had come down considerably.

The members, Jam Tamachi in particular, stressed the need to review the education policy and to ensure merit in all appointments and promotions.

After the questions hour the chair called it a day at 1.10pm to reassemble on Monday at 10am.