Education dept, MPAs strive to ‘keep the Sindh promise’

MoU aims to improve enrolment of students and quality of education in Sindh

KARACHI:

The Sindh education and literacy department and MPAs of the Sindh Assembly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Friday, with the aim of achieving 100% enrolment and an improved quality of education to children aged between five and 16 years.

The MoU states that access will be given to MPAs of constituency-wise data of government schools by the education department. It adds that if MPAs take some steps to improve the situation in a particular constituency, the education department must be taken on board.



The MoU was signed between education secretary Fazlullah Pechuho and various leaders present at the event organised by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Alif Ailaan at the Pearl Continental hotel on Friday. The other leaders included Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA Dr Arif Alvi, Pakistan Muslim League - Functional (PML-F) MPA Mahtab Akbar Rashdi, PTI MPA Dr Seema Zia and Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Sorath Thebo.



The MoU is the result of two years of efforts made by the education department. On February 20, 2014, Alif Ailaan organised a programme under which a resolution was made for the betterment of the education system in Sindh. The resolution was passed in the Sindh Assembly the very next day.

Alif Ailaan brought the stakeholders back on a platform on Friday to discuss the implementation of the resolution. They discussed how much the MPAs have kept their promises, under the title, ‘Keeping the Sindh promise’.



The aim was to see what changes have been made so far and how the education department is working towards the betterment of the system, said Alif Ailaan campaign director Musharraf Zaidi.

According to Zaidi, while the quality of education in public schools is a challenge in itself, getting children enrolled in primary schools is a bigger challenge. During his presentation, he said that no breakthrough has been achieved in education as there were 25 million out-of-school children in 2014 and the recent government statistics put the number at 24 million.

All Taleemi Ittehad head Noor Majeed pointed out that more than 80% of the teachers are those who cannot teach properly. Pechuho replied that when the education department conducted a test of 200 teachers in a particular district, 80% of them failed the test of class five.

Suggesting a solution for better results from the education department in terms of system, Rashdi said that only merit-based recruitment can make the education system grow. Subzwari agreed with her and added that training and grooming of teachers should also be done along with making attendance transparent.



Rashdi also said that until and unless political influence is removed from the education department, nothing can improve. Referring to the meeting held two years ago under Alif Ailaan, she asked that if there are 24 million out-of-school children even today, what has improved in the province in the last two years.

Rashdi added that after converting to the Employee Tracking System and Biometrics, the department has access to the data. “This is the right time to take action when we have the exact numbers [on the areas in which] we are lacking,” she added.

Replying to her, the education secretary said that he is not powerful enough to change things. “MPAs need to understand and empower the secretary if governance needs to be improved,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2016.