With Sindh Education Minister, Sardar Shah, provincial education sector has shown positive signs of progress.
SHIKARPUR: With the new Sindh Education Minister, Sardar Shah, in the saddle, the provincial education sector has shown positive signs of progress. To say the least, the minister’s speeches and announcements regarding the improvement of this sector are worth mentioning. In his initial days, the minister admitted that the system of education has completely failed to deliver due to the incompetence of the past governments. The sad state of affairs calls for urgent measures to fix all the mismanaged departments, he added.
Shah will surely face challenges and hurdles in his way while countering the problems that have for long lingered in the education system. The most appalling problem is the lack of checks and balances. Despite an active biometric system, thousands of teachers remain absent from schools. The absent teaching staff includes 1,773 teachers who have been on leave for a while and another 2,000 teachers who have been identified as ‘ghost teachers’. Of the ghost teachers, 6.7 per cent are posted in Jamshoro, 5.2 per cent in Tando Muhammad Khan and 3.8 per cent in Shikarpur. The ghost teachers are mainly appointed for political reasons. And tackling the issue of ghost teachers will be the hardest nut to crack for Shah but that will also be the real test of his competence and his ability to deliver.
Wajahat Abro
Published in The Express Tribune, October 2nd, 2018.
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