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| India-Pakistan |
| More empty promises expected on literacy day today |
| 2014-09-09 |
| [DAWN] KARACHI: On the occasion of International Literacy Day on Monday, many politicians including Senior Minister of Education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro would be attending several ceremonies as their predecessors have been doing over the years. They shake hands, get their pictures taken and make moving speeches on how they mean to change the state of education here. Still, it seems that the politicians here are too busy with their egos to attend to literacy. This year on the eve of the day, the senior minister issued a statement about it being our responsibility, according to Article 25-A, to provide education free for all. "Sindh education department is considering to give the incentive package of 20 marks for those SSC, HSC and BA passed students who will voluntarily prepare to impart education to the uneducated children of Sindh so that some 500,000 uneducated children are able to get education which will be helpful in reducing the illiteracy in the province," he said. "It has been decided to establish 1,500 consolidation campus schools in Sindh to improve education. In this regard identification of 700 consolidation campus schools have been made in the different districts of Sindh in the first phase. The head teachers for such consolidation school campuses will be recruited for three years on contract basis through the National Testing Service [NTS]. "Education is key to the nation's development and teachers have an important role to build the future of the nation, therefore they should come forward to play their part in increasing the standard of education in Sindh. The teachers should perform their duties with honesty and sincerity otherwise I will start a target operation in education against them," he added. Mr Khuhro, since taking over as the education minister, has made it clear on various occasions that no compromise will be made on merit, transparency and the quality of education and all teachers will be appointed through the NTS. Besides, he has also often said that all non- functional schools will be opened for which he is willing to visit each village of Sindh. The senior minister has also claimed that 1,800 out of 5,000 non-functional schools in Sindh have already been made functional and the remaining will start functioning soon. Of course all the previous governments are blamed for shortcomings in education till now. But in Sindh the PPP government cannot get away with that excuse as the previous government was also theirs. |
| Posted by:Fred |