HYDERABAD, Aug 3: Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq said on Sunday that the provincial government was considering a proposal for getting back control of universities and intermediate boards as in other provinces where the institutions were working under provincial governments.

The minister said after inaugurating the newly-constructed administration block in Sindh University on Sunday that primary and secondary teachers would be promoted to BPS-14 and 16, respectively and higher secondary teachers to BPS-17 and 18.

He said that Sindh was faced a critical situation with regard to primary education as the province had 7,500 of 15,000 closed schools of the country. The corrupt education officers were creating hurdles to his efforts to make the schools functional, he said.

He said that the previous government held tests for the recruitment of primary teachers under an agreement with the World Bank on the basis of educational certificates, without taking into consideration education system in Karachi and Kandhkot. The agreement made it binding on the government to recruit candidates who secured 60 per cent marks in tests conducted by the IBA, he said.

He said that his grandfather Pir Illahi Bux had presented the bill for setting up Sindh University and faced so much opposition from many assembly members that he had to seek help of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Mr Jinnah, in response to his father’s letter wrote to Sir Hidayatullah to help pass the bill, he said. He paid tributes to great scholar Allama I.I. Kazi for selecting land for the university and his role in its development and Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah who played a key role for the betterment of the institution.

The minister announced vacating the building of Sindh Science Society to let work freely to fulfil its objectives and announced commencement of intermediate classes for girls in the university’s model school in Jamshoro and classes for boys in Government School of Sindh University Cooperative Housing Society besides a new building for intermediate college.

He said that study leave would be granted to college teachers to get enrolment for PhD in the University of Sindh. The Sindh government would help university employees construct residential quarters for which government land would be allotted to them and they would be given interest free house building loans.

Sindh University Vice-Chancellor Mazharul Haq Siddiqui highlighted academic and research activities at the campus, which he said was working to promote freedom of expression and a culture of critical thinking.

He said that the university provided 40,000 e-books and 36,000 research journals at the library for the benefit of scholars and students.

VC of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Dr. Abdul Qadeer Rajput, Advocate General Sindh Yusuf Laghari, Pro-VC Dr. Rafia Ahmed Shaikh, Project Director Javed Memon and controller osf examinations Dr Pervez Ahmed Pathan were present at the inauguration ceremony.In a statement issued here the minister clarified that no candidate having less than 60 per cent marks in tests conducted by IBA for teachers jobs had been issued offer letter by education department.

He rejected the claim made by some protesters and said that he was personally monitoring the process of issuance of offer letters and had also formed committees headed by respective DCOs to ensure transparency in distribution of letters.

He advised the protesting candidates to prepare themselves for next competitive examination instead of wasting time in protest.