Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah as per the decision taken in the 42nd Council of Common Interest (CCI) has approved taking over control of 4192 non-formal schools being run by the federal government and decided to enhance the salaries of teachers from Rs8000 to Rs25,000.

He accorded this approval while presiding over a meeting held at CM House on Thursday.
The meeting was attended by Minister Education Saeed Ghani, Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary School Education Ahmed Bux Narejo, Secretary IPC Asif Ikram, Special Secretary Finance Bilal Memon, and others.

In the 42nd session of CCI held today, a decision was taken that the provincial governments would take over National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) and Basic Education Community School (BECS) from June 30, 2021.

Minister Education Saeed Ghani told the chief minister that there was a total of 4,192 centers/schools with 4,425 teachers and 236,755 enrollments, including 1,463 BECSD centers with 1,463 teachers and 61,118 enrollments and 2,729 NCHD centers, 2962 teachers, and 175,637 students.

The chief minister was told that these schools/centers were being run under a non-formal education system where teachers were teaching on a voluntary basis against remuneration of Rs8000, per month.

At this the chief minister said that his government has already announced minimum wage at Rs25,000 per month, therefore these volunteer teachers would be paid Rs25,000 each per month.

The finance department told the chief minister that by enhancing the salaries of 4,425 teachers from Rs8,000 to Rs25,000 per month would cause a Rs1.327 billion financial implication.

Shah approved the amount and directed the department to move a summary for the purpose.

Shah also directed the education department to take over control of the schools immediately and make the schools functional with the same teaching staff.

“After some time an opportunity may be provided to the teachers to appear in the test and those who qualified it would be inducted as regular staff,” he said.

The chief minister also directed the education department to assess the requirement of these schools in terms of furniture, water, washrooms, electricity etc and ensure their provision at the earliest.