KARACHI, March 18: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim said on Saturday that like some other departments, now corruption has found its roots in the education department as well, which was damaging the process of teaching and learning, examination and assessment of students and overall maintenance and functioning of educational institutions.

He was speaking at the concluding session of the Sindh Education Conference, organized by the Sindh Education and Literacy Department as part of the federal government’s initiatives to get recommendations from stake-holders in all provinces for a revision of the national education policy of 1998.

The draft modified education policy will be ready for review by the Inter-Provincial Education Minister’s Conference in May.

The chief minister noted that the unions were instrumental in gaining undue privileges and political benefits, and the government was contemplating placing a ban on union activities in various departments of the Sindh government.

He said that teachers receive half of their salaries and remain absent from schools and educational institutions, which was another cause of worry to the government and which indicated the collapse of hierarchy in the educational sector.

He said that political quarters also exploit teachers for one reason or the other, which should be done away with.

The community and parents should rise up to the occasion and ensure proper functioning of government schools in their vicinity, he said, adding the government was seeking opinion of the law and the labour departments for taking measures against union activities.

He hoped that the policy-makers would consider overhauling the whole education system and consider the issue of amenities and infrastructural facilities in educational institutions, both in urban and rural areas, mode of assessment and better essence of management.

The Sindh government, he said, had already initiated measures to rectify the problems of dropout students and was campaigning door-to-door as well for enhancing awareness about importance of education and elimination of gender bias, he said.

Speaking as chief guest at the inauguration session of the conference, the education minister, Dr Hameeda Khuhro, said despite the facts that the country had many education policies since its inception, unfortunately the over-all outcome had not been so satisfactory.

She said that policies were never implemented in their true sprit, a problem for which education officers could be blamed. She opined that the new or revised policies should address the issue of implementation too.

She said that the Sindh education department had already embarked on a process of reforms which was aimed at self-sustained development in education sector and it would be appreciated if the policy review team of the federal government looked into these reforms and incorporated them into a policy.

She stated that the government was making efforts to make education an accessible commodity for every child, but on the other hand, poverty and explicit and implicit cost of sending children to schools was very high.

She urged the national education policy review team to consider that teachers were the lynchpins of the education system and they were required to be quality personnel.

“One would like to appreciatethose who are contributing against all odds, but I have to admit that a large number of teachers are simply not performing their duties which can be attributed to structural faults in the manner in which the whole system is being managed.”

The education minister also called for making the education policy relevant to market needs and to ensure that education was more closely linked to the practical life.

Low-cost, low value degrees have led to an abundance of our youth loitering in streets without employment and at times in a state of frustration engaging in crimes, which must be stopped and efforts be made to get the technical and skilled manpower, she remarked.

In his opening remarks Javed Hasan Aly, a consultant to the federal education ministry and head of federal education policy review team, said the purpose of holding the provincial education conference was to involve all stakeholders in the inclusive and consultative process of revising the 1998 policy and know the factors which still remain to be touched upon.

The factors necessitating the review included a renewed vigour of the government to respond to national aspirations of a uniform human development of quality and to identify and articulate educational needs of the people of the country.

He said the process of completing consultations with provinces and preparation of a draft modified policy for a review by the Inter-Provincial Education Minister’s Conference would be completed by the end of May, while the first draft of the policy would be ready for the federal cabinet by the end of August this year.

Sindh education secretary Ghulam Ali Pasha said a policy not only translates the national vision and inspirations into a reality, but at the same time also brings into its fold the contingent and specific issues of each region which is supposed to implement the policy.

He said that the 1998 policy was a comprehensive document in various respects as it attended almost all sub-components of education, including elementary and technical education, teacher education, higher education, illiteracy and non-formal education by discussing issues, setting targets and implementation mechanism.

He said that in principle the provincial governments follow the broad guidelines set under federal policy framework, but when it came to evolving policy instruments, the provincial governments basically design their instruments in accordance with their own specific needs and environment.

Talking about reforms in education sector, he said at present the Sindh education department was in the process of evolving a medium-term policy framework for the next to five years that set target, evolved policy instruments, provided costing and implementation and over-sighted mechanism for education reforms in Sindh.