NAUNDERO: Sindh Minister of Education and Literacy Syed Sardar Ali Shah pledged on Tuesday that the status of Higher Secondary Schools (HSS) would soon be withdrawn where degree colleges had been established so that better education facilities could be provided to the colleges for improving quality of education in Sindh. He was talking to media persons at Garhi Khuda Bux during his surprise visit to Government Girls and Boys High Schools. He expressed profound concerns over the prevailing condition of the schools as 25-year-old benches were still being used. “We will try our best to provide latest child-friendly furniture in the schools and overcome shortage of teachers,” he said, adding that no fresh recruitment had been made for the last eight years because of imposition of restriction on appointments. After introduction of the biometric system, four to five teachers have been getting retirement in different schools on a daily basis, resulting in an acute shortage of teachers. Shah said that Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has granted permission to appoint 6,000 new teachers to overcome shortage of teaching staff and 1,100 early child teachers would also be recruited. He said that those campus schools which were situated nearby would be closed. “We want to get rid of non-viable schools across Sindh which are dysfunctional and a burden on the government exchequer. We need to formulate child-centered and child-specific policies for benefiting students,” he said. He confessed that conditions in schools were not good and even potable water was not available, complaints of washrooms and dilapidated boundary walls were common, but it was the backlog of last 40 years which could not be improved within twinkling of an eye. “We will have to work for betterment of education and future of our children,” he said, adding that fundamental reforms were needed in the education sector for rapid and effective improvement. “We will constitute the District Assessment Board in every district which will include retired and expert educationists so that assessment of schools could be made on district level,” he said, adding that teacher training centers were not working properly, and termed them ‘dysfunctional’ while reforms were required to train teachers with new techniques of learning and teaching. Shah asserted that the engineering wing of the department would visit schools where subsoil water has been contaminated and unsafe for human consumption, and those schools would be provided small Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants. Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Qasim Siraj, Aijaz Laghari and others were also present on the occasion. Later, Shah also visited the Benazir Bhutto Government Girls Degree College in Naundero and inquired about their issues. Published in Daily Times, October 10th 2018.