Sindh amends education law

Boards may now issue certificates, diplomas without exams in emergencies

KARACHI:

With matriculation and intermediate students left wondering about their futures for months amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the Sindh Assembly finally passed a bill on Thursday to allow provincial education boards to issue certificates and diplomas without conducting examinations in emergency situations.

Amid protest by the opposition parties, the provincial assembly also passed a bill to allow the Sindh government to take over most of the teaching hospitals in the province.

As the session began under speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, the assembly hall had a particularly colourful look on the day, with the majority of MPAs, both from the treasury and the opposition benches, donning ajrak. The move came in response to comments made by Shahbaz Gill, the special assistant to the Prime Minister on political communication, mocking the ajrak face mask worn by Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

There was commotion in the house when opposition members protested the absence of bills on the agenda, even as Sindh Parliamentary Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla presented two bills for legislation.

"We have not been given the bills. The majority of our MPAs have not read them. How can you make the law like this?" argued opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi, adding that legislation could not be passed in haste.

Chawla responded that the Sindh Teaching Hospitals (Establishment and Management Board) Bill, 2020, had come from the standing committee, where all the committee's members had reviewed its clauses and provided their feedback.

Naqvi, however, pointed out that no opposition members were part of the standing committee. "Every member of the house must get the bill with the copy of the agenda. We cannot sit here and take part in legislation until we understand it," he contended.

As Chawla moved the bills for voting, opposition members from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) walked out of the session in protest.

Relief for students

A bill was moved to make an amendment to the Sindh Technical Education, Secondary and Intermediate Boards Bill, to grant permission for certification even in the absence of examinations in situations such as that of the coronavirus pandemic. The bill was earlier approved by the Sindh cabinet on Wednesday.

While the government had earlier announced that matric and inter students would be able to pass without examination, the matter had been in limbo until the amendment had passed, leaving students worried about their future.

Teaching hospitals

According to Chawla, meanwhile, under the Sindh Teaching Hospitals (Establishment and Management Board) Bill, 2020, almost all teaching hospitals in the province would be brought under the domain of the provincial government.

"Under this law, we have decided to establish management boards comprising health officials, finance officials, senior doctors, deputy commissioners of the relevant districts, and representatives of civil society," he stated.

The state of education

Earlier, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani informed the house that around 5,000 "non-viable" schools had been unnecessarily established to appease certain people in the past, in order to provide jobs and other benefits.

"We are going to shut down these schools because they are a burden on the provincial exchequer," he stated.

Responding to the queries of opposition members, he said that around 6.2 million children were out of schools in the province, adding that the government had started a campaign to enrol them in educational institutions. "We are giving stipends to them, especially to girls, in order to encourage them," he claimed.

When asked if the government had drafted a policy for enrolling such children by PTI lawmaker Rabia Azfar, however, he was unable to give a concrete answer, saying only that the provincial government was making efforts in this regard.

"We have been hearing for the last 12 years, from all the education ministers of Sindh, that they will do this and do that. We want to know what you have done. Please tell us about your progress," chimed in GDA legislator Nusrat Seher Abbasi.

Ghani stated that around 4,170 projects for the rehabilitation of schools were under way. "We are also working on the upgradation of schools," he said, adding that there was a dire need to establish middle and secondary schools.