Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah directed the education department on Wednesday to work out a detailed plan to improve the education system, reduce the ratio of dropouts and develop teachers' capacity building. Presiding over a meeting at the Chief Minister's House to review the status of public- sector education in the province, the chief minister said that he had declared an emergency in education sector but the net results are not encouraging.
Education Secretary Aziz Uqaili briefing the chief minister said that the enrolment target for the primary level was fixed at 77 percent, against which 65 percent has been achieved. The enrolment target for middle schools was set at 45 percent, against which 35 percent was achieved and the target for the secondary level was fixed at 35 percent, against which 25 percent was achieved. He added that the literacy ratio is 60 percent while the target had been set at 70 percent for 2018.
He said that the latest published report of Pakistan Education Statistics (2014-15) by National Education Management Information System, Islamabad, says that in Sindh schoolchildren of 5-16 years of age are 11.9 million, of whom 6.66 million are out of school. Of the 11,991,067 children of 5-16 years, 5,327,706 are in school and 6,663,361 are out of school. At this the chief minister said that it means 55.6 percent children are out of school.
The Education Secretary said that the dropout rate at the primary level was 12.6 percent in 2014-15 and every year it is being reduced by three percent. The meeting was informed that in 2016-17 there are 45,555 schools in the province, of whom 42,383 are viable and 3,172 nonviable. The overall enrolment in 2015-16 was 4,145,219 while it improved to 4229,128 in 2016-17. This shows a difference of 83,909 or 2 percent increase.
Similarly, in 2015-16 there were 156,216 teachers, which was reduced to 150,787 in 2016-17. The difference of 5,429 teachers retired or resigned due to the start of the biometric attendance system. The chief minister said that he was not happy with the state of schools in the province and the dropout ratio, whether it is accurate or not, is disappointing.
He directed the education department to select 15,000 primary schools as model schools and provide them all facilities and keep a proper teachers-student ratio and monitor their education process through proper surveillance and inspections. He said this process would definitely improve education at the primary level.
Similarly, 1,000 secondary and higher secondary schools may also be selected as model school. This is the only way to improve them in phases. But it is surprising that the government schools which are being managed by private partners are providing good education and are producing results.
It was pointed out that most government schools are functioning without electricity. The chief minister questioned how is it possible to produce good students when they are forced to receive education without lights and fans in their class rooms. The Education Secretary said that the K-Electric has claimed Rs 119 million in electricity bills. The chief minister directed the chief secretary, Rizwan Memon, to call a meeting of K-Electric and the school education department to reconcile the bills.