Sindh partners with 20 NGOs for running 34 new schools

Karachi: The Sindh government’s Education Department has contracted the services of 20 renowned non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for running 34 newly established schools for providing free schooling up to Class 10th in English medium.

The new schools have been established under the People’s School Programme of the Sindh government in 19 districts of the province.

At a ceremony, the Sindh Education Foundation, a subsidiary of the provincial government, signed the contracts with the selected NGOs. The newly built schools will start offering education from the new academic session commencing in August 2022. Overall, the schools are expected to enrol over 15,000 children of the underprivileged classes.

The Sindh government will provide financial assistance to these schools for the education of the students. The schools will adopt modern Information Technology-based learning systems for the students. Solar systems will be installed for electrifying the schools through clean energy while generators will also be available as a backup source of power supply. The schools are equipped with required furniture, science laboratories, and libraries, while students will also be provided with free textbooks.

The schools have been established in the districts of Larkana, Shaheed Benazirabad, Khairpur, Qambar Shahdadkot, Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Umerkot, Naushahro Feroze, Karachi, Hyderabad, Matiari, Kotri, Jamshoro, Mirpur Mathelo, Tando Muhammad Khan, and other areas.

Speaking as the chief guest at the ceremony, Sindh Education Minister, Syed Sardar Ali Shah said that contracting the services of the concerned NGOs was a step in the right direction to providing quality school education to the children of needy families.

He said the general trend should be changed that people frequently contact him with the earnest request to use his good offices for enrolling their children in the elite private schools of the cities.

He urged the teachers associated with the government-run schools to take a keen interest in ensuring the provision of the best academic facilities to their students.

The Education Minister exhorted the partner NGOs not to just adopt the buildings of the new schools but also fully own the students to be enrolled there for the provision of the best education.

He mentioned that there were 39,000 government primary schools and 3,000 high schools in Sindh which was the reason behind the high dropout ratio of students after completing education in the early classes.

Shah said the government had been upgrading the existing schools by adding senior classes for arresting this dropout trend among the students.