KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Education and Literacy Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar said that the Sindh Education Department is going to establish 450 non-formal education centres while the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) will also establish almost 1,000 non-formal education centres in Hyderabad, Badin, Thatta, Sujawal and Mirpurkhas for out of school children.
He said this while presiding over the 6th meeting of the Sindh Curriculum Council on Wednesday.
Curriculum Wing Head Dr Fouzia Khan, Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Hyderabad (BISE) Chairman Dr Muhammad Memon, Mushtaque Shahani and Agha Sohail were also present in the meeting.
The meeting was informed that error-free textbooks from class I to VIII have been finalised and are currently undergoing printing, while the textbooks from class IX to X are in the review process which will be available for the next academic year.
Jam Mehtab stressed upon the participants to design research-based textbooks and to hire qualified coordinators, experts, editors and subject specialists for this purpose. The minister pointed out that the current books were overloaded and have technical and grammatical errors, which need to be corrected.
He further directed that textbook papers should be of high quality and meet international standards. “All efforts should be made to improve assessment process and curb cheating in exams because without overcoming this issue we cannot produce better teachers and students,” he added.
“During the board exams, school teachers should move to another school for invigilation, instead of the students having to move, as it will save students and parents from unnecessary trouble,” said Dahar.
It was also decided in the meeting that the schools will focus more on using technology in the classrooms and the Sindh Text Book Board will establish a mechanism for seeking feedback from schools, colleges, writers, and editors to help in designing the syllabus. “The syllabus should be improved and designed in a way to make it more attractive to the students,” the minister directed.
