Sindh amends education law

Author: Mahrukh Khan

Because matriculation and intermediate students were worried about their futures for months due to lockdown, the Sindh Assembly finally passed a bill on Thursday to allow provincial education boards to issue certificates and diplomas without conducting examinations in emergency situations.

A bill was moved to make an amendment to the Sindh Technical Education, Secondary and Intermediate Boards Bill, to endowed go-ahead for certification even in the absence of examinations in situations such as that of the coronavirus pandemic. The bill was earlier approved by the Sindh cabinet on Wednesday.

While the government had earlier declare that matric and inter students would be able to pass without examination, the matter had been in midpoint until the modification had passed, leaving students worried about their future.
Earlier, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani informed the house that around 5,000 “non-viable” schools had been unnecessarily established to pacify certain people in the past, in order to provide jobs and other benefits.
“We are going to shut down these schools because they are a load on the provincial treasure,” he stated.
Answering to the doubts of opposition members, he said that around 6.2 million children were out of schools in the province, adding that the government had started a campaign to register them in educational institutions. “We are giving compensation to them, especially to girls, in order to give confidence to them,” he said.

When asked if the government had drafted a policy for enrolling such children by PTI lawmaker Rabia Azfar, however, he was unable to give a satisfying answer, saying only that the provincial government was making efforts in this regard.

“We have been hearing for the last 12 years, from all the education ministers of Sindh, that they will do this and do that. We want to know what you have done. Please tell us about your progress,” said GDA legislator Nusrat Seher Abbasi.

Ghani stated that around 4,170 projects for the rehabilitation of schools were under way. “We are also working on the up gradation of schools,” he said, adding that there was a dreadful requirment to establish middle and secondary schools.