The funds for the school management committees should be disbursed in a transparent manner, Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq told district officers on Saturday. He was presiding over a meeting of executive district officers (education) at his office. Education Secretary Waseem Ursani, Colleges Director S Nasir, Reform Support Unit Chief Programme Manager Pervez Seehar were among those attending the meeting.
The minister expressed his displeasure over the EDOs lack of interest in the issue of Education Department employees illegally working in NGOs and the media and told them to submit within a week time comprehensive details about such workers so that they could be issued show-cause notices. Haq also appealed to NGOs and media groups to terminate the services of such employees for the sake of the children’s education.
The minister said that the government is going to recruit 18,000 more teachers through the IBA on merit basis to improve the educational standard and overcome the shortage of teachers in schools of the province. He directed the education secretary to finalise all promotion cases of grade-18 within 15 days to overcome the shortfall of school administration staff. Haq was briefed that 281 posts of grade-18 are lying vacant as there were no promotions last year, creating a shortage of experienced and technical personnel in the system.
He said that when officers are no promoted in time, they are deprived of their rights and lower grade officers have been for a long time for new opportunities and avenues. On the issue of school management committees in various districts that have still not been provided with funds, the minister instructed the officials concerned to ensure that all the committees receive the money released for them.
“Strict action would be taken against negligent officers after ascertaining the facts through an inquiry report,” he added. He directed the education secretary to immediately remove all OPS officers without further delay to rationalise the system and post experienced officers in their place. The in charge of the school management committees, Saba Mushtaq informed the participants of the meeting about the districts where committees have still not received funds.
She said that these include 250 committees in Sanghar, four in Umerkot, seven in Dadu, 115 in Karachi, 10 in Hyderabad, 20 in Larkana, 200 in Thatta and 724 in Shikarpur. She said that these committees have been kept deprived of their fund because the SEMIS code doesn’t match.