As a Recorder news report appearing on Thursday has revealed, looming threat to nearly 18,000 trained teachers of National Commission for Human Development (NCHD), has been offset by the indulgence of the new federal government.
Quoting Director Operations NCHD, it has stated that the present federal government has restored and upgraded NCHD from district level - at which it had been functioning since 2000 - upgraded it to provincial level, besides restoring it as it had stopped functioning in August for want of funds.
Reference, in this regard, has been to a meeting of the secretaries of provincial education department early this month, held under the chairmanship of MNA Faryal Talpur, and culminating in far-reaching positive decisions, including release of funds. While the provincial education secretaries declined to accept the NCHD demand for adoption of its trained teachers, as such, a via media was worked out to satisfy its urges and aspirations too.
More to this assurance was also made of the federal government paying to NCHD Rs 551 million, in two instalments, and another Rs 273 million before March 2009. It is, however, another matter that elaboration on the past performance of his organisation, he maintained that its teachers have served all over the country in different districts wherever the need for teachers was felt, particularly, establishing feeder schools where there were no schools, thereby, working for the promotion of education improvement in literacy rate in the country.
Again, recalling that NCHD had been basically working with district governments to help implement education reforms schemes, he also acknowledged the government has upgraded the status of NCHD, and invited it to launch joint ventures to improve its standards of education all over the country.
He said that NCHD started its operation in 2002 to improve health and education standards in the country. As he put it, NCHD is a national body, funded by overseas Pakistanis for promotion of health and education sectors in the country, in order to enhance literacy rate from 43 percent to 80 percent, ensure 100 percent students enrolment in schools, reduce dropout rate, and to train all government teachers latest by 2015. Regretting that the previous government, stopped, abruptly, funding of the organisation in the first quarter of 2008, leading to its collapse on August 31, last year. According to him, as the new government has realised the importance of this institution and restored it too, it can look forward to maximum benefits by utilising NCHD expertise effectively.