The Pak Banker

Sindh education minister rejects Single National Curriculum

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Provincial Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah on Monday rejected the Single National Curriculum (SNC) telling the Sindh Assembly that education and curriculum were provincial subjects and the provinces had a right to teach the students in their respective mother tongue.

He was replying to a point of order raised by Leader of the Opposition Haleem Adil Shaikh, who wanted to know if the provincial government was closing down over 10,000 schools across the province. Describing the SNC as 'curriculum martial law', Mr Shah said that that the federal government had not taken the Sindh government on board while preparing the curriculum and wanted to give published books to the province. "In the new curriculum, they [federal government] are also asking the students about their three-year performanc­e," he added. Opposition leader asks why govt is closing down schools when 6.9m kids are already out of school. He said that the federal government showed 'hastiness' to impose the SNC.

"The Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf in its manifesto promised to impose the SNC without having a look at the Constituti­on according to which education is purely a provincial subject. This not a matter of manshoor [manifesto] but dastoor [constituti­on]," the minister remarked. He said that the provincial government supported the federal government in enforcing the SNC for science subjects only, making it clear that Urdu and Sindhi were compulsory in the province.

"Punjab has every right to communicat­e its students teachings of Baba Bulleh Shah and other intellectu­als so as we [Sindh] have the right to include Hoshu Sheedi and others in our curriculum," he said. In his point of order, Opposition Leader Sheikh said that the PTI-led federal government aimed at implementi­ng a uniform education system for rich and poor in the country. "Why it is not being implemente­d in Sindh?" he asked.

The opposition leader said that it was reported in the media that the provincial government had decided to close down 10,000 schools across the province. Coming down heavily on the provincial government, he said that over 6.9 million children were out of school in the province. "Why are these schools being closed when such a large number of children are already out of school and what action was taken against the responsibl­e if these institutes were establishe­d unnecessar­ily?" he questioned.

He said that the condition of schools was very poor as 26,000 schools did not have the facility of drinking water and 19,000 were without toilets, adding that there was no electricit­y in over 31,000 schools. The opposition leader also alleged that desks for schools were being purchased on exorbitant price of Rs29,000 each.

In reply to the opposition leaders' point of order, the minister said that the education department was going to close down at least 7,000 non-viable schools across the province as they could not be termed as schools. "Numerous schools were establishe­d unnecessar­ily during the regime of President Pervez Musharraf and Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim," he said and disclosed that a village had 64 schools and most of them were being used as autaqs or cattle pens.

Minister Shah said that there were even one-room schools in the province, adding that all non-viable institutes would be closed down. He said that out of total 47,000 schools in the province 39,000 were primary and only 4,000 were post-primary schools. "Around 5,000 schools do not have even infrastruc­ture," he added.

He said that around 11,000 schools had been listed to be closed down but 7,000 of them were entirely non-viable. While replying to lawmakers' written and verbal queries during Question Hour, the education minister admitted that enrolment in colleges was low as per population and said that facilities should be expanded to increase the enrolment.

To a question asked by Nusrat Sehar Abbasi of the Grand Democratic Alliance, he said that 62,336 girls were enrolled in 46 colleges of Hyderabad, Larkana, Mirpurkhas and Sukkur. The minister said that there were 335 government colleges in Sindh and most of them were located in urban areas, making it very difficult for the students of rural areas. "We are taking measures to establish hostel and to increase number of colleges especially for girls," he added.

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Justice Umar Ata Bandial taking oath as Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan in Supreme Court of Pakistan. -APP
ISLAMABAD Justice Umar Ata Bandial taking oath as Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan in Supreme Court of Pakistan. -APP

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