Sindh education dept submits list of 4524 high priority schools

KARACHI: The education department on the directives of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has started prioritising enrollment in primary schools across the province, and catering to their infrastructure and academic environment to ensure higher enrollment from April 2018 onwards.

In this regard, Secretary School Education Iqbal Durani on the directives of CM Sindh issued in meeting with school education department held on October 18 submitted a detailed progress report.

The report identifies a list of 4000 schools having full enrollment across Sindh with more or less equitable distribution, while concurrently an analysis and evaluation of remaining schools is also under way.

A district-wise data has been identified together with a set of seven existing state of facilities such as classrooms including number of teacher, boundary wall, electricity, washrooms, furniture and availability of water and sanitation.

The secretary reported that the public health engineering department plans to provide solar electricity to 4000 schools and these schools should be prioritised by the department.

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The chief engineers and school infrastructure development (SID) teams have been mobilised to undertake a standard infrastructure design (SID) for these 4000, while an additional 524 elementary and secondary schools have been included as required by the World Bank.

The secretary has submitted a list of high priority 4524 schools to CM Sindh, while the implementation plan along with timeline and cost estimates will be submitted by November 10.

The district-wise schools identified by the education department are: Badin 197, Central Karachi 153, Dadu 199, East Karachi 77, Ghotki 175, Hyderabad 221, Jacobabad 189, Jamshoro 129, Kambar-Shahdadkot195, Kashmore 166, Khairpur 187, Korangi Karachi 92, Larkana 193, Malir 106, Matiari 72, Mirpurkhas 204, Mitiari 81, NausheroFeroze-203, Sanghar 197, Shaheed Benazirabad 211, Shikarpur 195, South Karachi 65, Sujawal 84, Sukkur-191, Tando Allah Yar-154, Tando Muhammad Khan 82, Tharparkar 133, Thatta 102, Umerkot 150, West Karachi 121.

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The short-term reform program announced by CM Sindh entails a wide range of improvement, mainly focusing on government and accountability reforms such as school infrastructure development, school consolidation, school-specific budget and head teacher recruitment.

The outcomes of reform actions would contribute to increasing enrolment and retention and improve governance and accountability and strengthening administrative systems.

CM Sindh has set educational development as one of its key priorities as demonstrated by declaring an Education Emergency in the province.

The project restructuring has been announced to provide a holistic approach to school education by focusing on 4000 primary and 524 middle and secondary schools for rehabilitation based on the seven  indicators which would help increase retention and enrolment.