Sindh vacant non-teaching posts

Sindh has highest percentage of vacant non-teaching posts
Karachi, June 22: With 27 per cent of its non-teaching posts vacant, Sindh has the highest number of vacant non-teaching posts in the education sector in Pakistan. However, when it comes to teaching staff, the same province is overstaffed.

Executive Director, Indus Resource Centre (IRC) Sadiqa Salahuddin, and Coordinator, Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) Yasir, told the media at a press conference held at the Karachi Press Club to highlight the issues of public schools across the country.

FAFEEN Education Institution Monitor is based on data gathered from 133 Government Girls Primary Schools (GGPS) in Pakistan during the month of May 2010. FAFEEN Governance Monitors visited 56 GGPS in various districts of Punjab, 38 schools in 23 districts of Sindh including Karachi, 30 schools in 21 districts of Kyber Pakhtunkhwa, seven GGPS in seven districts of Balochistan and one school each in Islamabad Capital Territory and Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The team of IRC visited schools in Landhi/Korangi and Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Gulshan-e-Iqbal (Gulshan Town) to obverse the basic facilities available for the young students, Salahuddin said.

The purpose of the visits was to check the attendance of students, teachers and non-teaching staffs. Surprised visits were carried out to observe the situation at schools. During the visits, IRC found that the attendance of students and teachers were below 75 per cent at the visited schools, she added. IRC went through nine constituencies of Sindh to visits GGPS for the survey.

The student-teacher ratio is relatively better in Sindh and Balochistan provinces. One teacher is available to 23 students of Sindh. In Balochistan, one teacher is available for an average 24 students, Yasir said.

On the day of visits, FAFEEN observed that 380 teachers were posted in the schools while 8, 775 students were present at the schools, he added. There were 173 sanctioned teaching posts in Sindh whereas 194 teachers were posted in the schools. On the other hand, 45 non-teaching staff was posted in the schools while 62 sanctioned posts were available for the same job.

The government is spending an average of Rs1, 670 per girl student per year based on budgetary data provided by 31 of 133 GGPS monitored across the country. The rest of the schools either did not have the data or declined to share it with FAFEEN Governance Monitors, raising issues of transparency since budgetary data are considered a public information document, FAFEEN reports show.

The highest spending per girl student is in Sindh at Rs2, 543 while the lowest is in Balochistan at Rs747. interestingly, these are the two provinces where school authorities were least able or willing to provide budget information, with less than 20 per cent of schools in each province doing so, the report further said.

According to FAFEEN's finding, 102 out of 133 GGPS did not give information about budgetary details. In addition, the administration of 14 schools across the country (almost 10 per cent) declined to share information about the number of sanctioned teaching posts, and 12 schools did not give FAFEEN Monitors information about the number of sanctioned non-teaching posts.

As many as one-third of schools monitored during May 2010 were housed in dilapidated buildings (30 per cent) and did not have well lit classrooms (32 per cent) or clean drinking water arrangements for students (38 per cent), the report said.

It further said that half (56 per cent) did not have all required furniture for teachers and students or an orderly to help with teachers' chores (50 per cent) and one-quarter (24 per cent) did not have electricity or fans (28 per cent).

FAFEEN also found that two-thirds of the schools had no playground or other recreational facilities for students (63 per cent) or a separate staff room for teachers (64 per cent). More than three-quarters were without security guards (76 per cent) and without a sweeper (87 per cent). About seven per cent were housed in makeshift buildings, about one fifth (19 per cent) had unclean classrooms and one-sixth did not have black/white boards (17 per cent) or boundary walls (16 per cent).

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KU holds aptitude test for MBA in Banking and Finance
Karachi: University of Karachi (KU), under its Evening Programme conducted the aptitude test for MBA in Banking and Finance on June 20 at the Faculty of Arts. Over 1,400 admission forms were issued out of which almost 1,300 candidates appeared in the test. Dean of Faculty of Management and Administrative Sciences, Professor Dr Abuzar Wajidi, and Chairman, KU, Business School, Prof. Abdur Rahman Zaki and Campus Security Advisor, Prof. Dr Khalid Iraqi kept monitoring the centres whereas a team, sent from the Senior Director of the Institute of Bankers Pakistan, Nazir Ahmed Sheikh, was also present for assistance. The test was conducted in a peaceful and secure environment. Separate seating arrangement was made for parents of the candidates. The news

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Shah Abdul Latif University re-opens
Khairpur: Shah Abdul Latif University reopened here on Monday. The university was closed for summer vacations on May 30 and the remaining papers of semester examination were postponed in the wake of May 27's protest against frequent power outages by students living in hostel.

Police used batons and teargas against the protesting students who boycotted semester examination scheduled for May 28 and took out a procession against police action and the university administration.

Activists of the Students Alliance observed a token hunger strike for eight days after which the university administration accepted their demand for reopening of the university and continuing the examination.

According to an official press release issued here on Monday, the remaining papers of semester examination will commence from Tuesday. The point buses shall ply on their routes as usual.

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Quaid-i-Azam's school ignored in uplift budget
Karachi: The Sindh planning and development department has omitted the Church Mission School (CMS), where Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah began his schooling, from its buildings' renovation works scheme in the annual development programme of fiscal 2010-11.

Sources in the education department said that although Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq had shown a keen interest in the restoration work of the school's almost ruined blocks during his several visits to inspect its restoration works during the last four months and had recommended that funds for its renovation be allocated in the next fiscal year's budget.

The historical building of the school had been lying in a highly dilapidated condition for long, but the minister during his first visit to the school in mid-February had directed provincial works department officials to immediately undertake the restoration work of the school's three dilapidated blocks with an assurance that funds for the purpose would be allocated in the 2010-11 ADP.

Soon after the minister's assurance, officials of the works department awarded a contract for the project to contractors with a commitment that they would be paid from the next fiscal year's ADP. The officials are now in a fix as the provincial P&D department has omitted the scheme from the ADP.

Founded by the first collector of Karachi, Colonel Henry W. Preedy, in 1846 on Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar Road (then Lawrence Road), the CMS was one of the best educational institutions of the city and its students often topped in the matriculation examinations. But its 1971 nationalisation not only eroded its standard of education, but all its three blocks suffered from neglect. The school where Mr Jinnah had studied before taking admission to the Sindh Madressah-tul-Islam has produced a number of cricketers of international repute such as Intekhab Alam, Mushtaq Mohammad, Sadiq Mohammad and Haroon Raheed.

Meanwhile, a recent visit to the school showed that a portion of its compound was still heavily encroached upon. Dawn

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