HYDERABAD, July 2: Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq has said that “some elements in the shape of teachers association” are targeting the University of Sindh under a conspiracy to destroy education in the province.

Referring to a campaign for removal of Vice-Chancellor Dr Nazir A. Mughal, the minister said neither he nor the VC would succumb to pressure by the agitating teachers.

“We have faced such a situation successfully in the past and will do so now,” he said while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a convocation of the Institute of Modern Science and Arts (IMSA) at a hotel on Monday.

The People’s Party, other political parties and nationalists were against such “anti-education activities”, the minister added.

He regretted that on Sunday “so-called leaders of the teachers association” used abusive language against a woman teacher.

About talks with the teachers or any action against them, he said the Sindh government would neither talk to them nor take any action against the agitators.

“Only the vice chancellor has powers to take a decision. We cannot interfere in the affairs of an independent institution.”

Pir Mazhar said 19,000 school teachers would be appointed in Sindh and the process would begin by recruitment of 8,000 teachers soon. As many as 4,000 dysfunctional schools would be reopened after teachers’ appointment, he added.

Earlier, in his address to the convocation the minister said the education department was being expanded to ensure efficient service delivery and upgrade standard of education. Three new components Sindh education development authority, directorate general of monitoring and evaluation and directorate general of human resources – would be created in the department, he said.

He called upon graduates to join awareness campaign launched by the education ministry to increase enrolment in schools.

The 18th Amendment had made education compulsory for every five-year-old, Pir Mazhar said, adding that the Sindh Assembly was going to take up legislation to implement the constitutional requirement.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Nazir Mughal, the vice chancellor, accused the Sindh University Teachers Association of damaging education and announced establishment of a selection board for promotion of teachers, officers and employees of the university in a week.