By NNN-APP,
Karachi : As many as 14,000 schoolteachers would be recruited in the province of Sindh to overcome shortages of teaching staff and to strengthen the education system in the province.
Sindh Minister for Education and Literacy, Pir Mazhar ul Haq said this during a news conference in his office here on Wednesday.
The Minister said that the 14,000 posts of schoolteachers would be advertised soon.
He was of the view that it be seen that the test of these teachers be conducted through the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Sukkur because of the sound reputation of that institution.
The Director of IBA Sukkur, Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui, was also present on the occasion along with the Provincial Education Secretary.
Pir Mazhar said that he would try and convince the Country Director of the World Bank, which has extended soft loan for education, that the passing marks for the recruitment of teachers be brought down from the present 60 percent to 50 percent.
However, he declared that the commitment of the World Bank would be fulfilled.
The Minister vowed to try his best to streamline the system of education in the province saying that we already lag behind as far as other provinces in the country are concerned.
He also declared that merit and merit alone would be the criterion in the realms of education and no pressure- political or otherwise, would be entertained.
Pir Mazhar also pointed out that a three-year agreement was reached with the World Bank under its Development Policy Credit. Under this, the World Bank in the year 2006 extended a very soft loan to the Government of Sindh and this was recoverable in 20 years’ time.
This was for the recruitment of school teachers with the condition that the process be school specific and merit based and added that it was also a condition that there would be a written test and the passing score would be 60 percent.
The Minister said that the first instalment of the loan to the tune of 100 million dollars was released then to the government of Sindh province which in the year 2007 placed advertisement for the recruitment of 14,500 teachers- PST, JST and HST.
He stated that as many as 150,000 candidates appeared in the written test conducted by the IBA Sukkur. The pass percentage was agreed at 60 percent but the then chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim unilaterally decided that the pass percentage be reduced to 40 percent and issued directives to this effect to the Education Department to notify the result.
Pir Mazhar said that when the World Bank came to know about the lowering of the pass percentage it did not release the second instalment of the loan and because of this not a single teacher could be appointed.
He pointed out that some 7,500 schools in Sindh province are shut and the main reason is that there are no teachers.
The Minister said that after he took charge, the World Bank people approached him and gave a briefing and asked if the government would follow the agreement then the Bank would release the second instalment of the loan.
He said that the provincial government has agreed to fulfil the requirements to this respect. Consequently, the World Bank has informed that the second instalment of the loan would be released.