KHAIRPUR: Sindh Chief Minis­ter Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that the province has been lagging behind in the education sector since the imposition of ‘One Unit’ in the country and during the dictatorial and non-representative governments but with the sincere and committed endeavours by the provincial government and active collaboration by the USAID, it is poised to move forward and will soon surpass the other three provinces in this sector.

Mr Shah was speaking at a ceremony held here on Thursday for the inauguration of a school building in Kouro village, a few kilometres away from Khairpur city.

The school has been built at a cost of Rs700 million under a USAID project.

The chief minister recalled that in the era when Khairpur was a princely state, primary education was free and compulsory while the (Khairpur) state used to bear the board and lodging expenses of students.

“The imposition of One Unit and rule by successive dictatorial and non-representative forces in the following years, caused irreparable damage to the education sector in Sindh,” he said. However, he added, his democratically elected government took a host of result-oriented measures and made relentless efforts with clear vision and strong will to improve it.

Recounting his government’s achievements in this sector, Mr Shah said that as many as 10 universities had been established in the public sector within the last eight years. “Besides, we made functional a large number of the over 7,000 closed schools that we had inherited. We provided missing facilities to these schools and allocated monthly stipend for all female students to promote women education in the province,” he said

Mr Shah said that like the assassinated PPP leader, Benazir Bhutto, her son Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari being party chairman exhorted the provincial leadership to assign top priority to education.

The chief minister appreciated the US government for patronising the education sector in Sindh and also thanked it for cooperation and assistance it had extended in the wake of super floods in 2010 and torrential rains the next year that had devastated the province.

Speaking at the ceremony, US Consul General Brian Heath said that under the USAID project, a total of 106 school buildings were being built at the cost of Rs16 billion in seven districts of upper Sindh.

“A new era of education will usher in in Sindh,” he said, and added that the USAID endeavours were aimed at providing opportunities to the rich potential in Pakistan enabling its youth to play a vital role in the world community.

Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari told the audience that youth of Pakistan could build a prosperous and promising future of this country. She quoted her mother, Ms Bhutto, as always expressing her view that only education could emancipate society from extremism and radicalism.

She said her mother had always been telling Muslims around the world to acquire modern education in order to overcome their problems, howsoever complicated.

USAID Mission Director Johan Groake, Sindh Senior Minister for Education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and Secretary Dr Fazlullah Pechuho also spoke.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2016