KARACHI – President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday called for structural improvement in the management of educational institutions in Sindh while seeking methods for generating funds and minimising oversights to boost education both qualitatively and quantitatively. He made these observations while presiding over a meeting at the Bilawal House pertaining to education in the province. The meeting was attended by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, provincial ministers, and other senior federal and provincial government officials.
Briefing journalists about the meeting, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the pathetic state of education in the province came to light when the meeting was informed that out of the 11 million school-aged children only 6.4 million were enrolled at schools; twenty percent of the schools in the province have no buildings; 45 percent comprise only one or two rooms; over 60 percent of schools have just one or two teachers; while 60 percent schools do not have safe drinking water available.
“The province is facing an education crisis,” the president remarked, adding, “This situation must not be allowed to continue and needs to be changed through structural improvements.” Babar said that the president has asked the provincial education minister to prepare a comprehensive workable plan and propose the steps required to meet the education emergency while suggesting that thought should be given to enter into management partnership with the private sector for efficiently running the schools.
The president has also called for adoption of innovative ways to generate funds and improving oversights of the educational institutions. “The situation, that over 4.5 million children are simply not enrolled in schools and over 60 percent schools have just one or two teachers, points to fundamental flaws in the system, which need to be addressed on emergency basis,” Babar quoted the president as saying. The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) has allocated 80 million pounds for the development of education in the province over the next five years through the Sindh Education Fund, which will be set up as a non-profit company under the Companies Ordinance.
However, the assistance from the DFID will only be given to those educational institutions that fulfil the basic minimum criteria. Asking the provincial Education Department to gear up its efforts for meeting basic minimum criteria to be eligible for DFID assistance, the president directed diverting revenues from each deh to the development of education. Another meeting has been convened by the president within a month to discuss the steps taken by the provincial government, in which the relevant ministries would give a briefing on the progress made in implementation of directives.
SEPARATE POWER POLICY:
Presiding over another meeting at Bilawal House to discuss power and gas situation in the province, President Zardari directed the Sindh government to develop a separate power policy under the permission given to provinces in the Power Policy of 2002 for developing less than 50MW projects.
The provincial government needs to develop its own separate power policy to meet its growing energy demands as under the Power Policy of 2002, the provinces can develop projects under 50MW on their own.
The presidential spokesperson said that the president had urged setting up captive power plants for selected industrial zones while augmenting gas supply from the gas fields.
The meeting also reviewed the progress on an earlier directive for reactivation of abandoned gas fields in the province for improving the gas supply in the country.
Another meeting was called within a month to examine the progress made on designing the separate power policy and setting up of generation boards in the province.
