Daily Times

KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the education secretary to invite expression of interest from leading educationists in the private sector for managing newly planned public schools in the province where Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) syllabus will be taught.

“I want to run these English-medium schools through private management,” he said at a meeting of the Education Department on Thursday, adding that the intention was to help establish schools providing best available education facilities in the public sector.

“The government would bear all the expenditures including tuition fee, text books, exercise material, registration fee and examination fee and even salaries of the teaching and non-teaching staff. The private partner would have to run the management effectively.

“I want to start these schools by the end of April,” he said.

Earlier, Murad Ali Shah was told that the formation of rules for recruitment of 6,000 new teachers was in process at the regulation wing. Once rules had been established, work would begin at the establishment of early childhood education system with English medium and comprehensive high schools, he was told.

The meeting was attended by Education Minister Mehtab Dahar, P&D Chairman Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, and School Education Secretary Iqbal Durani.

During the briefing, School Education Secretary Iqbal Durani told the CM that 15 of the 25 school buildings under construction in the province were now ready for operations.

Under the approved arrangement, each school would have 69 staff members, including 39 teaching staff. The furniture for 15 schools has been purchased

These school buildings are in Shaheed Benazirabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Naushehroferoze, Sanghar, Khairpur, Mirpurkhas, Tando Mohammad Khan, Ghotki, Thatta, Badin, Sujawal, Matiari, Tando Allahyar and Jamshoro.

The buildings which would be completed in 2018-19 are in Hyderabad, Umerkot, Dadu, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Jacobabad, Tharparkar and Malir, while work on three other school buildings in Shikarpur, Kashmore and Karachi would be started next year.

Mr Durani told the chief minister that SNE of five schools had been approved while the SNE of 10 others was yet to be approved by the finance department. On this, the chief minister expressed his displeasure and summoned the file from the finance department and approved it on his own during the meeting. The chief minister said that he would not tolerate red tap in affairs of government departments. “Everything should be done on time,” he said.

Mr Durani further told the chief minister that the formation of recruitment rules for 6,000 new teaching posts was in process with the regulation wing.

Under the approved arrangement, each school would have 69 staff members, including 39 teaching staff. The furniture for 15 schools has been purchased. Every school would have fully equipped science and computer labs, a library and a standby generator.

“These schools would be English medium and would be operated along the lines of the Cambridge system. It was quite difficult for the government to recruit best O levels teachers in rural areas, therefore the task may be given to top educational institutions in the private sector,” the CM said. The minister and the school education secretary were assigned the task to talk to leading educational institutions for running the management of these English medium schools and then selection would be made through a competitive process.

Replying to a question, Schools Education Secretary Durani said that six of the 25 school buildings would be ready by March, while nine others would be ready by December this year.

The tender process for the remaining 10 school buildings was at its advance stage.

Murad said that the teachers for early childhood education should be recruited through genuine competitive process. New teachers must be good in English, science and mathematics.

Therefore, question papers for selection of teachers should be made accordingly, he said, adding that teachers trainings was of utmost importance.

Published in Daily Times, February 16^th 2018.