KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that education is the backbone of socio-economic development of any country and without tangible development and requisite advancements in this sector, we cannot survive or thrive in the world of nations.

This he said while speaking at a program organized to distribute teachers’ training certificates by the School Education dept here at the Banquet Hall of the CM House. The program was attended by its host Minister Syed Sardar Shah, CM Special Assistant Nayab Leghari, MPA Ghulam Qadir Malkani, Secretary of College Education Ahmed Bux Narejo, Secretary School Education Akbar Leghari, senior officers of the education department, members of civil society, graduating teachers and others.

Mr. Shah said that education is the backbone of socio-economic development of any country and without tangible development and requisite advancements in this very significant public sector, we cannot survive or thrive in the world of nations. He added that his government was very much focused and determined in bringing palpable improvement in the Education Sector which was evident from our policies and interventions in this particular sector of great significance to enlighten our province with education.

Talking about the incentives, the CM said that by bringing the `out of’ school children into the education network, and abating dropouts, his government has introduced so many incentives which include Free Textbooks, Stipends to Girls students, rehabilitation of damaged school buildings, provision of furniture to the schools, the opening of closed schools, Merit-based recruitment of teachers.

Murad Shah, talking about the recruitment of Teachers, said that the Sindh government has hired hundreds of thousands of teachers, purely on merit engaging third party for the scrutiny of the candidates through the test conducted in a fair and transparent manner. “This merit-based recruitment of teachers started in the year 2008 and still continues under Teacher’s Recruitment Policy – 2021,” he said.

This policy of hiring teachers is one of the significant rounds of hiring to engage approximately 55000 candidates as PSTs and JESTs BS-14 throughout the province purely on merit and without any discrimination and political affiliation, the CM said and added the total number of candidates appeared in IBA Test for PSTs in Sindh was 184249 against which 83968 qualified and for JEST the number of candidates appeared was 164372 against which 51785 qualified the test.

Talking about Teachers’ training, Mr. Shah said that it was extremely important at the start of their career to make effective teaching and learning at schools and equip them with modern teaching methods through pedagogical skills in both aspects of content-based teaching. He added that a comprehensive programme for Initial Professional Development (Induction Training) has been started through Sindh Teacher’s Education Development Authority (STEDA) and Teacher’s Training Institutes (TTIs) and was in progress to provide training to all newly recruited 55000 teachers. Initially, 14770 newly recruited teachers have been imparted training in different phases.

The Chief Minister said that a teacher has to earn respect and honour in society by giving quality education and generating well-educated and well-behaved students. “This will be possible when the teacher would be devoted, dedicated, and hardworking,” he said.

Minister Education Syed Sardar Shah said that there seemed to be ownership of the schools that not only deteriorated education but brought a wide gap to cover the dropout ratio. He said that he had been educated in a ‘Otaq School’ but that school had the ownership of his grandfather and other notables of the area, therefore the students who passed out from that school attained a higher position in society.

Sardar Shah urged society to own the school whether it was working in a beautiful building or under the open skies. “With your ownership, the teacher would turn up in the class, take classes properly, and would also take interest in the education of the children,” he said. At the conclusion of the programme, the CM distributed certificates among the teachers who had completed the training. Secretary School Education Akbar Leghari also spoke on the occasion.