Teachers’ written test on Sept 13

Education minister says enrollment has dropped in the province

KARACHI:

The written test for the recruitment of school teachers in the province under the Sindh Department of School Education will be held on September 13 at all divisional headquarters, including Karachi.

About 500,000 candidates are participating in this test for 46,000 posts. This was stated by Sindh Education Minister Sardar Ali Shah in an exclusive interview with Express Tribune in his office. He also revealed that the admission campaign has not been running for the last two years due to which about 500,000 children have dropped out of school.

He said that the enrollment of government schools in Sindh has come down from 4.6 million to 4.1 million. Sardar Shah added that data shared recently by Secretary School Education Akbar Leghari showed a 4.1 million enrollment.

Explaining the details of the written test for teacher recruitment on September 13, the Education Minister said that a candidate would have to get 50 marks to pass the 100 marks test. However, if the required number of candidates in a division does not pass, then only a slight change can be made in the policy of passing heads for the respective division.

He said that this test will be conducted by IBA Sukkur and the results will be released in 48 hours through machine readable checking. It may be mentioned here that recruitment is being done for the posts of Primary School Teacher, Junior Elementary School Teacher. Therefore, it is proposed to upgrade these posts to 19 - 20 grade.

He said that we are going to appoint a permanent officer for the post of Director Schools Karachi who will be from Karachi and for this he will personally conduct interviews.

Regarding the post of Director General of Colleges, he said that it was unnecessary in the presence of Regional Directors. He said that consideration was being given to create the post of Curriculum Officer in the Colleges Wing by abolishing this post as the syllabus was also being changed at the Inter level.

"We have rejected the 'single national curriculum' of the federation and are working on changing the curriculum in Sindh. The curriculum will include national heroes as well as non-controversial personalities. He gave the example that just as Sindh students read lessons about Sheikh Ayaz, they can also read John Elia. It will reduce distance between Urdu and Sindhi speakers in Sindh.

Replying to a question about appointment of Secretary School Education, Sardar Shah said that Akbar Leghari, the current official holding the post, had been teaching in a government school for nine years and in a college for two years before his recent services. "He is well aware of the education environment in Sindh. Only after rendering teaching services he passed the commission and join the civil service."

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2021.