CM wants 300 micro schools to enroll 0.3m out-of-school children

Sanctions Rs800m for Sindh Education Foundation for the purpose

KARACHI:

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has given the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) a target of establishing 300 micro schools to enroll 0.3 million out-of-school children and hire 600 women facilitators. He has sanctioned Rs800 million for this purpose.

CM Shah gave these instructions while chairing the SEF board meeting at his office on Thursday. Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah, Chief Secretary Asif Haider Shah, Principal Secretary Sindh Chief Minister Agha Wasif, P&D Chairman Najam Shah, School Education Secretary Zahid Abbasi, Finance Secretary Fayyaz Jatoi, Sindh Education Foundation MD Qazi Kabeer, Board Members Qaiser Bengali, Dr Qazi Masood, Dr Muhammad Memon and other concerned officers attended the meeting.

The chief minister approved the extension of Accelerated Digital Learning (ADL) program with Teach the World Foundation. ADL Phase II will span over three years. CM Shah gave Kabir a target of bringing 0.3 million out-of-school children to school by establishing 300 digital micro schools in the current academic year 2025-26.

He directed the SEF MD to engage 600 women facilitators in the process by facilitating the teaching process. Kabir told the CM that in ADL Phase II, Rs2,200 will be spent on each student. On which, Shah approved Rs800 million for the SEF.

Kabir told CM Shah that one million children are enrolled in 2,734 schools, 35 people's schools, 223 centres and 125 macro schools. Out of which, 4,452 students are being given scholarships. As many as 804 scholarship-holders have passed out.

CM Shah directed the SEF to increase access to every district. Currently, there are SEF officers in six regions and 23 districts.

By 2025-26, the SEF has to start 1,000 digital classes and work for development of technical skills, so that the passed out students can be easily employed, he said.

The education minister told CM Shah that six government schools which were inactive due to dilapidation were now being made functional through the SEF. In response to a question, the education minister told the CM that the SEF spends Rs16,000 per student per month. CM Shah was told that the annual budget of SEF is Rs15,955 million which is insufficient. On this, the chief minister directed the finance secretary to review the allocated budget of the SEF and suggest measures in case of shortfall. CM Shah was informed that the third party is auditing the SEF accounts for the years 2021-22 to 2023-24.

The SEF MD told the chief minister that the endowment fund of SEF is Rs2,850 million. So far, Rs1,218.893 million have been collected, taking the endowment fund to Rs4,068.893 million. Additionally, investments have been made in the gratuity fund, resulting in a profit of Rs52.256 million.

The chief minister was informed that the Accelerated Digital Learning Program (ADLP) with Teach the World Foundation (Pilot) was approved by the Board of Governors and the Cabinet for 12,500 learners at a cost of Rs710 million in 2023, 57 micro-schools were supported by nine other schools which enrolled another 1,000 trainees from 5,700.