Integrated strategy under the administrative umbrella of the district government is imperative to bring meaningful reforms in the education sector.
The District Co-ordinating Officer Hyderabad observed this while holding the meeting with four-member delegation of US AID programme for Education Sector Reforms Assistance (Esra) at his camp office this evening.
The delegation, which comprised of Professor Nasreen Hussain, Saadat from Islamabad and Shama Shaikh and Aamir Siddiqui from Hyderabad, called on the DCO Hyderabad to discuss and undertake mid-term review of the education reforms works being undertaken under the Esra programme in Hyderabad district.
Talking to the delegation, he said mostly the donor agencies and other NGOs working for development in education or other sectors were directly linked with the EDOs concerned through the provincial government without any intimation to district government, as such disparity and duplication of work had become a routine. He said such disorganised and isolated work had not only wasted the public money but also created wide gap between stakeholder organisations.
He said after having been devolved the education department was supposed to be run under the guidelines and supervision of district government but practically management of education department was more responsible to the provincial government.
He said until and unless the district government had not been empowered and the District Steering Committee headed by Zila Nazim or the DCO not been formed, the objective of the Esra or other development programmes in education sector could not be achieved.
Quoting examples of District Baitul Mall Steering Committee headed by Zila Nazim, District Steering Committee for National Improvement Programme for Water Courses, headed by the DCO and District Steering Committee for Devolve Social Services Programme (DSSP) headed by the DCO were being successfully implemented with good deliveries to the people.
Similarly, the district government was assigned its role of compiling and implementing over development strategies, it would definitely achieve the targeted objectives successfully, he added.
He said besides those bottlenecks, the District Government Hyderabad had allocated a considerable amount for improvement in education sector and informed that recently Rs 40 million were utilised to provide furniture and other required equipment to schools in the district.
He said in addition to that the district government was planning to utilise its saving amount of Rs 27 million for providing potable water, boundary walls to the girl schools, construction of additional class rooms, provision of furniture /equipment and opening early child learning schools in the district.
He said the district government Hyderabad was funding the schools on need and assessment basis and also advised the Esra management to follow that mechanism to ensure equitable facilities to each school of rural as well as urban areas.
The members of US AID Evaluation Team informed the DCO that under the Esra Programme, work on policy planning, teachers' training, adult literacy and community participation was in progress to bring reforms in the education sector.
They said that out of 10,000 targeted, 5,000 teachers had been trained, adding 10,000 adults had been made literate and an amount of Rs 59,000 each to 416 schools of ex-Hyderabad district had been provided for their lacking facilities.
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