Education sector: political parties asked to articulate collective response

Political parties must join hands with the Sindh government to improve the standard of education and increase literacy rate in the province. This was stated by the local leaders of different political parties on Wednesday. They were speaking at a conference on 'Challenges and Opportunities in Sindh Education - Role of Political Parties', which was organised by Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (ISAPS) in collaboration with Alif Ailaan.
"We should set aside political differences and work together for the betterment of education in Sindh," said MPA Khair-un-Nisa of Pakistan People's Party (PPP). She said that the PPP's provincial government was striving hard to remove flaws in the educational system of the province. She requested all political parties to support Sindh government in its endeavour to improve the standard of education. Khalid Ahmed of Mutahhida Qaumi Movement (MQM) endorsed the proposals of ISAPS and vowed to discuss the issues at every platform.
Aslam Ghouri of JUI-F held the Sindh government responsible for the poor system of education in the province. He said that appointments of teachers on political basis had ruined the quality of education. Haleem Adil Shaikh of PML-Q said that the government's indifferent attitude towards education had put the future of children at stake. "The parents of the pupils should form associations on the pattern of teachers' bodies to curb ills in the educational system," he advised.
He urged the government to improve the teaching standard and infrastructure of the public sector schools to facilitate the poor segment of society. Manzoor Baig of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) urged the provincial government to introduce a unified system of education. He said that JI was planning to expand its Usman Public School System across the province.
Salma Waheed Murad of APML suggested the provincial government to invest heavily in education sector. She said that community services should also be introduced in the curriculum, besides primary education must be imparted in seminaries. Earlier, in his presentation, ISAPS's research fellow, Ahmed Ali, highlighted the administrative flaws in educational system of the province. He said that the government had invested massively on its teacher training programmes but failed to achieve the desired results. The representatives of Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party (STP), Awami Jamhoohri Ittehad (AJI), Sindh National Party (SNP) and others also shared their views.