KARACHI: A spokesman of the Sindh Education Department has contradicted a news item that appeared in a section of the press suggesting that most teachers give 15 minutes in class.
In a statement here on Wednesday the spokesman of Sindh education and literacy minister said that the Education and Literacy Department Sindh welcomes the randomised survey of just 196 schools in eight districts of Sindh by a private organisation on teaching, learning and management practices.Having said this, the statement added, the department has stronger case to claim that the findings are in no way reflective of the overall scene in government run schools. There may be some weaker spots but the department also has some success stories, which also needed to be highlighted to keep the record straight.
The spokesman said that during the past three years the present government has initiated a number of bold steps including strict adherence to merit as around 14,000 teachers have been inducted purely on merit through reputed institutes and under the vigilance of international donors who have diligently performing in schools with positive results. But the report does not mention the performance of these teachers.Similarly, to improve the teaching practices in accordance with universally adopted teaching practices, a new degree programme of Associate Degree in Education (ADE), under Sindh Teacher Education Development Authority (STEDA), has been introduced throughout the province from this year, which will replace the obsolete PTC and CT courses.
Sindh Education Department is currently in the process of formulating a strict external monitoring and evaluation system to keep close vigilance of teaching and learning in schools on periodic basis, especially primary/elementary schools, which lost a direct oversight of the department following devolution of powers under SLGO 2001.Understanding the poor management and administrative skills of the baseline education officials, the department has already launched Sindh Education Sector Managers (SESM) course to build the capacity of education managers for improved administration and service delivery.
To improve the teachers’ accountability through community, school management committees (SMCs) have been in place since past two years under school reforms programme in education.A third party evaluation under the watch of international donor organisations has submitted positive findings as for the capacity building of spending and expenditures in school is concerned.Coming back to the report the statement said, the report in question does not reflect the overall situation of the schools in education department which has a total strength of well over 4.4 million children studying in about 49,000 schools against just 6,000 pupils and 196 schools claimed to have been surveyed. – Dailytimes
