CM Sindh approves upgradation of 554 primary schools

KARACHI: The Sindh school education department on the directives of Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has selected 554 primary schools to upgrade to elementary level.

Secretary school Education Iqbal Durani during a presentation to CM Sindh on Friday said that these 554 schools have been selected from all the 133 talukas and includes boys, girls and mixed schools.

The chief minister had directed the school education department to upgrade those primary schools to the level of elementary which have average enrolment of more than 400. Therefore, the department selected 554 schools with an total enrolment of 237,953.

CM Sindh approved the construction of additional classrooms and provision of necessary facilities for these schools so that the dropout rate at Class-V can be contained.

The schools selected include 98 in Larkana region, 74 in Sukkur, 69 in Mirpurkhas, 77 in Shaeed Benazirabad, 148 in Hyderabad and 88 in Karachi region.

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In Larkana region out of 98 selected schools 29 are boys, 28 girls and 41 mixed. In Sukkur region 17 are boys, 23 girls and 34 mixed, while in Mirpurkhas 16 are boys, 17 are girls and 36 are mixed.

In Shaheed Benazirabad 23 are boys, 24 girls and 30 mixed. In Hyderabad 37 are boys, 47 girls and 64 mixed. In Hyderabad 37 are boys, 47 girls and 64 mixed and in Karachi 13 are boys, 19 girls and 56 mixed.

Secretary School Education, giving details of overall 10,115 high priority (HP) schools, said that they constitute 24 percent of total schools with 68 percent enrolment, while 76 percent schools have 23 percent enrolment.

He said that there are 42,383 schools with an enrolment of 4,229,128 in the province. The 10,115 HP schools have 2,882,623 or 68 percent enrolment, while 32,268 schools comprising 76 percent have enrolment of 1,346,505 which is 32 percent of overall enrolment ratio.

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CM Sindh said that in the first phase 4560 selected HP schools should be developed with complete infrastructure within six months, and in the second phase the remaining 5555 schools would be taken up.

The secretary giving more data of the HP schools told CM Sindh that out of 4560 HP schools of phase one 3890 primary schools have 998,202 enrolment while 670 post primary schools have 246,780 enrolment.

CM Sindh directed Minister Education Jam Mehtab Dahar to personally monitor upgradation work so that it could be completed in true letter and spirit.