Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh Secretary Education and Literacy Department, Dr Fazlullah Pechuho on Tuesday said that 90 per cent of the children in Sindh do not have Child Registration Certificate (CRC) that is supposed to be issued by NADRA and in the absence of this essential data, it is very difficult to conduct the baseline.

He said that education department is taking concerted steps for improving education quality. He was talking to Asian Development Bank (ADB) Mission, led by Director Social Sector Division Rie Hiraoka and Lead Education Specialist Jouko Sarvi, which had a meeting with him and Additional Chief Secretary, Planning and Development Muhammad Waseem here, said a statement.

The purpose of the visit of ADB Mission was to understand education development needs in the province and explore common areas for collaboration. The Secretary Education further briefed the mission about different on-going initiatives of education department.

These initiatives include online capturing of enrolment data throughout Sindh to collect actual figures, early childhood education, improving girls’ enrolment and retention program, teachers’ training, non-formal education, public private partnership, school infrastructure, school based hygiene and nutrition support program.

The Additional CS praised the role of education department for taking bold steps for improving the education governance in the province. These steps are effectively dealing with the important issues like teacher absenteeism and hiring of teachers on merit, he said.

The mission acknowledged the efforts taken by education department especially in improving the governance through IT based programs. The ADB program would like to complement and supplement the on-going initiatives in order to avoid duplication of work.

The mission showed its interest in supporting the school infrastructure and public private partnership in education. The mission shared that ADB corporate strategy for South Asia explicitly mentions education as a priority.