KARACHI, Jan 2 The Sindh education department has formed a four-member committee to recommend and formulate a uniform curriculum for institutes imparting training to Montessori schoolteachers.

The committee has also been asked to suggest names of examining bodies which will be made responsible for conducting exams of candidates receiving Montessori schoolteachers' training from different Montessori teachers training institutes.

The committee comprising the provincial additional secretary (academic and training); the director of bureau of curriculum and extension wing, Jamshoro; the provincial director of private educational institutions; and the director-general of provincial institute of teachers training, Nawabshah; is expected to complete its task within two months.

Sources in the education department said that the decision to devise a uniform curriculum for the institutes providing training to Montessori teachers and to make it mandatory for such institutes to get their students examined from some educational boards were aimed at ensuring the credibility of the certificates of Montessori teachers.

According to them, Montessori teachers training institutes have adopted different curriculums for teachers training.

They said that neither was there uniformity in their curriculums nor those passing out from over a dozen Montessori teachers training institutes get proper jobs in schools. And it was, they said, despite that fact that Montessori schools were everywhere in the city, charging exorbitant fee from parents.

Sources said that major a flaw which had come to light regarding the affairs of Montessori teachers training institutes was that though they got their curriculum approved from the Sindh Board of Technical Education, they themselves were conducting exams for issuing Montessori schoolteacher certificates.

“Isn't it a joke that the institute that is providing training to its students is also giving them exams,” remarked an official of the education department.

Asked what measures were being taken to check the mushroom growth of Montessori schools in the city, sources said that all such schools which were providing Montessori system of education had already been directed to get themselves registered with the provincial directorate of private educational institutes and once they were registered their affairs would be monitored in a much better way.