There is such a thing as free lunch at Sindh govt schools

Education minister Nisar Khuhro believes the initiative will increase enrolment in educational institutions

KARACHI: Government schools will soon be providing free lunches to their students to increase enrolment, revealed senior minister for education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro.

He was speaking during a consultative meeting with Unesco and Unicef officials on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on quality education.

Highlighting the trend of enrolment in madrassas, he said that parents put their children in these seminaries due to poverty as these madressas have no fee and lunch is also provided.

"To increase enrolment in schools, we are working to provide lunch to students in government schools," said Khuhro, adding that to accomplish the SDG for education on time, the Sindh government has to expand its education system and encourage students to study. "It is sad that we did not attain the Millennium Development Goals for education in 2015," he lamented.

He told the participants of the meeting that 40% of children in Sindh have never attended a school. "We are trying to send these children to schools and increase their awareness on the need for education," Khuhro added. According to him, the main reasons for out-of-school children are lack of teacher attendance, school environment and curriculum design, all of which the education department is working on in order to make schools in the province better for students.

Khuhro, sharing his department's upcoming projects, said that to make changes in teaching styles and to maintain curriculum standards, a curriculum act is also in the process of being formed and books until class seven have been updated this year. The curriculum has not been updated since 2006, placing Sindh far behind other provinces in terms of changes and amendments in courses, he explained.  After the 18th Amendment, every student between five and 16 years of age should be given free education, according to Khuhro. "We are trying to implement Article 25-A completely," he said, adding that to increase female enrolment, the government has also started giving girls a stipend so that they can manage their expenses. This year's stipend money has been given to more than 300,000 girls studying in government schools.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2016.