Karachi:Caretaker Chief Minister Sindh ordered to release one billion rupees for printing textbooks and prepare digital monitoring system for college teachers.
Caretaker Chief Minister Sindh Justice (Retd) Maqbool Baqir presided over a joint meeting of the School and College Education Departments and approved the release of Rs. A digital monitoring system of all colleges should be developed to ensure the activities.
A meeting was held at the Chief Minister’s House on Wednesday in which Education Minister Rana Hussain, Chief Secretary Dr. Fakhar Alam, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Hasan Naqvi, Finance Secretary Kazim Jatoi, Secretary School Education Shireen Narejo, Secretary Colleges Sadaf Anis and other relevant officers participated.
In response to a question, Secretary School Education Shireen Narejo told the Chief Minister that 80 percent of students (schools) have received (free) textbooks. The Chief Minister expressed anger on this and said that this means that 20 percent of the students are studying without textbooks, which is unacceptable.
The Chief Minister was told that the books could not be published due to lack of funds. On this, the Chief Minister directed Finance Secretary Kazim Jatoi to release one billion rupees to the School Education Department by this evening to pay the dues of the vendor for printing the remaining books.
Secretary College Education Sadaf Anees while briefing the Chief Minister said that they are preparing monitoring and inspection system in all colleges. On this, the Chief Minister said that most of the college teachers are neither coming to the colleges nor taking classes.
Justice Baqir directed the secretary colleges to develop a digital monitoring system to ensure the attendance, presence and academic activities of the teachers in the college. The caretaker chief minister said that most of the colleges do not have teachers especially for science, mathematics and English subjects.
He said that I want you (Secretary College) not to concentrate teachers of same and arts subjects in the college but rationalize them. He further said that shortage of teachers in the college should be prioritized with surplus teachers.
The caretaker chief minister directed the secretary colleges to rationalize the teaching staff in each college and ensure the appointment of lecturers of the required subject. Justice Baqir directed the Secretary Education to collect the data of long-absent lecturers and forward their cases to the FIA to ensure termination of their employment and compensation taken during the period of absence. Salaries should be recovered.
The Chief Minister was informed that there are 369 colleges under the Department of College Education, of which 91 are science colleges, 45 are arts and commerce, four are IT, two are home economics and physical and 221 are mixed. Besides these there were 11 cadet colleges and five IBA community colleges.
The meeting was informed that the total enrollment in the colleges is 588331 out of which 7111 teaching and 6640 non-teaching staff. Sindh Educational Endowment Fund is managed by the Trust for the teaching process of colleges. The Sindh Educational Fund Trust provides merit-based scholarships to deserving students to complete their studies in higher education institutions in the fields of IT, Engineering, Medicine and Business Administration.
The Chief Minister was informed that an investment of Rs.6811 million has been made in the endowment fund from which a profit of Rs.918.126 million has been earned and the expenditure so far is Rs.839.676 million and a profit of Rs.78.45 million is with the trust. In response to a question, the Chief Minister said that from 2019-20 to 2023-24, more than 21000 students have been benefited.
The Chief Minister directed the College Education Department to mobilize its Director Generals, Directors and Deputy Directors to keep inspecting the colleges. The inspection system of colleges and other educational systems has been deliberately stalled by corruption, incompetence and laxity but must now be restored.
He said that I will visit the colleges and personally see that the building is being maintained properly, teachers are conducting classes, laboratories are working or not, I will also inspect the washrooms of the colleges. And will also see if the cleanliness of the classrooms and benches is satisfactory or not.
The Chief Minister said that it is necessary to have teachers for extra-curricular activities in every college and it is the responsibility of the principal of the college to ensure the attendance of the teachers.
Education Minister and Secretary College Education assured the Chief Minister that transfers and postings will be done purely on the basis of need and online classes will be started in colleges where teachers could not be posted due to valid reasons.
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