KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Thursday directed the education department to appoint 6,000 Junior Elementary School Teachers (JEST) so that early childhood education system, English medium and comprehensive high schools initiatives could be started.
He ordered this while presiding over the school education department meeting today here at the CM House. The meeting was attended by Education Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar, Planning & Development Chairman Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, School Education Secretary Iqbal Durrani and other officers.
Briefing the chief minister, Iqbal Durrani said that out 25 under construction English medium school buildings, 15 were ready to become operational. These school buildings are those situated in areas including Shaheed Benazirabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Naushehro Feroze, Sanghar, Khairpur, Mirpurkhas, Tando Mohammad Khan, Ghotki, Thatta, Badin, Matiari, Tando Allahyar and Jamshoro district.
The schools expected to become operational in 2018-19 are in Hyderabad, Umerkot, Dadu, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Jacobabad, Tharparkar, and Malir, while work on three other schools in Shikarpur, Kashmore and Karachi would start next year.
Durani told the chief minister that the construction of five schools had been approved while the 10 others are yet to be approved by the finance department. The chief minister expressed his displeasure over it.
He directed the secretary education to invite expression of interest from leading educationists and institutions. “I want to run these English medium schools through private management,” he said and added this would help establish best schools in public sector.
“The government would bear all the expenditures, including tuition fee, textbooks, exercise material, registration fee and examination fee, and even the salaries of the teaching and non-teaching staff. The private partner would have to run the management effectively. “I want to start these English medium schools by end of April,” he said.
Durani told the chief minister that the formation of recruitment rules for new 6000 teachers was in process with the regulation wing. Under the approved arrangement, each English medium school would have 69 staff members, including 39 teaching staff. The furniture for 15 schools has been purchased. Every school would have a fully equipped science and computer labs, the best library and a standby generator, he informed the CM.
These schools would be English medium and would be operated on Cambridge system. The chief minister said that it was quite difficult for the government to recruit best O-Level teachers in rural areas, therefore, the task might be given to top educational institutions.
Replying to a question, Durrani said that out of 25 comprehensive high schools, six units would be ready by March 2018 while nine others would be ready by December. The tendering process of the remaining 10 school was at an advanced stage.
The chief minister said that the teachers for early childhood education should be recruited through a competitive process but these new teachers must be good at English, science, and mathematics. Therefore, question papers for selection of teachers should be made accordingly. “Teachers’ training is the most important thing and I want a comprehensive plan for the capacity building of the teachers in the government sector,” he concluded.
