KARACHI, Dec 16: The Sindh government is going to convert some schools into model schools by switching to English as their medium of instruction while Urdu and Sindhi will be taught as optional subjects in these schools.

To make this pilot project a success, teachers with good academic background will be selected.

Conceding the pathetic condition and extremely poor standard of education in government-run schools, the provincial caretaker minister for education and literacy, Shujat Ali Baig, said that there were around 58,000 schools across Sindh at present, but a very large number of them were ghost schools with ghost teachers and students. Still he considered that the syllabus and standard of education being imparted at the existing schools was a far more serious issue because such education could not make any student productive for society in any manner.

This was stated by the caretaker minister at a dinner organised by the Small and Medium Enterprises Alliance (SAMEA) to celebrate the conferment of the awards of Sitara-i-Imtiaz to S.M. Muneer and Mian Zahid Hussain and Sitara-i-Shujaat to Sharfuddin Memon late Friday evening.

“When you come to know that the quality of education being presently imparted in government schools is so poor and their syllabus in particular has no relevance with the existing global trends and realities you feel disgusted and frustrated and you are compelled to think that what we had been doing as a nation for the last 60 years,” he observed.

However, he said the situation could improve with dedicated efforts and correct approach by remaining above all prejudices. During his short tenure, he said, he would try to convert some government schools into model schools with English as the new medium of instruction.

Karachi Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal said that there were around 4,000 to 5,000 schools being run by the city district government, regretting that their education standard as well as syllabus was extremely poor. He said he tried to make some changes in the syllabus, but failed as the change of syllabus came under the purview of provincial government. Citing an interesting example about the poor education standard and syllabus being taught in government schools, he referred to a textbook chapter ‘My Home’ based on a story of a student who explains about the number of rooms in his house and tells the readers that his grandparents also live with him, besides his parents and siblings. However, the nazim said, students got confused how to attempt if a question would come in exams from this chapter. They mostly gave answers based on their personal life experience, he said, adding that students could not be blamed for their wrong answers since the books and teachers were there to help clearing their minds instead of leaving them confused.

Sharfuddin Memon, chief of the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee, talked about the increase in street crime. He said that undocumented sale of cellphone connections was one of the major factors contributing towards growing crime rate. He said the CPLC had suggested the government to launch a scheme under which cellphone connections could be delivered only at a designated address of an applicant as was the case with the computerized national identity cards.

At present, he said, mobile phone connections were sold in market without any record of their purchasers. He said the easy availability of connections without proper documentation let criminal activities flourish.

Zafar Iqbal and Inam A. Osmani of the alliance briefly spoke on the occasion.