100 literacy centres, 300 non-formal schools to be set up in Sindh

Sindh government has decided to establish 100 literacy centres, 300 non-formal schools and to reopen 400 closed girls' schools in the province for achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 2015. Officials in Sindh Education and Literacy Department told Business Recorder that the provincial government has taken this decision to improve the overall literacy rate up to 100 percent.
As Pakistan among the other South Asian countries, who had signed MDG 2015, the provincial government has paced-up the process and devised a strategy to achieve target of 100 percent literacy rate by 2015, they said. They said 100 literacy centres and 300 non-formal schools would be established in all the 23 districts of the province while the closed 400 girls' government school of 11 districts would also be reopened for functioning. The provincial government has focused the most under-privileged parts of the province for scheme, they said.
They said the literacy centres and non-formal schools would be established with the co-operation of communities and NGOs. They said the government would also utilise buildings of closed schools for running literacy centres and non-formal schools. The department has also planned to reopen 400 closed girl school after repairing and to shift them other suitable areas for maximum enrolment, they said. They said the educational courses of the students in literacy centres and non-formal schools would be different from the courses of regular students. They said the government would prepare separate educational courses and syllabus for these students and would make it easy as compared to the existing courses, they added.
They said the literacy rate of the province has improved and enhanced from 43 percent to 53 percent from the last few years. They said the Sindh government has work on the project in 2002. Under this project, the provincial government would have to ensure 100pc literacy rate, student's enrolment in schools, stop drop out rate and to train all government teachers latest by 2015," they said. They said the department had made feasibility report of the project and sent to the Planning and Development (P&D) Department for approval. However, the literacy department has yet to receive funds for this particular project.