Saeed Ghani claims PPP always delivered in health and education sectors

Saeed Ghani, the Sindh labour minister who has also now been assigned the portfolio of the education department, said on Monday that education and health had always been at the top of the Sindh government's priorities and whenever the people of Sindh voted for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), it served them in those two important sectors.

He said this while speaking as the chief guest at the inauguration ceremony of a government secondary school constructed in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Yousuf Goth, Surjani Town.

Acknowledging the role of USAID in improving the education sector in Sindh, Ghani said the agency was helping the Sindh government immensely under the Sindh Basic Education Program in improving not only the infrastructure of schools but also the quality of school education throughout the province.

Ghani told the audience that the USAID was spending $155 million in this regard while the Sindh government was paying for the remaining costs. He said there were 112 schools which were being refurbished with the help of the USAID and hoped that by the next year, all these schools would be fully functional.

He said there were 9,000 schools across the province that had been identified by the Sindh government for refurbishment and hoped that all these schools would also be fully functional by the next year. Praising the Sindh government's public-private partnership initiative, he remarked that it was a milestone because it had not only brought a lot of improvement in the health and education sectors but also in the infrastructure and development of various projects meant for improving the living standards of the people.

He said Sindh had been rated among the top most provinces of the region where many projects had been successfully completed under the public-private partnership. The Thar Coal project was one of the best examples among the schemes that were completed under a public-private partnership initiative, he added.

Ghani said just like saving one life was equivalent to saving the entire humanity, educating a child was equivalent to educating a generation.

Addressing the children of the school, he said they should consider themselves extremely lucky to be there as he could never get this kind of opportunity of receiving high-quality education.

The education minister told the children that they should work hard sincerely and then a day would no doubt come when one of the children sitting there listening to him would be standing at the place where he stood, and addressing the next generation of students.

Addressing the teachers, he said they should fulfil their basic responsibility in a sincere manner, and added that if they did so, they would not have to protest for the approval of their demands.

Ghani said the teachers should treat their students like they treated their own children. Spending money on our children and education today was basically spending on our future, he added.

He maintained that all basic facilities for the children would be ensured in all the schools of Sindh and all the unnecessary schools would be closed. Ghani was of the view that if the government schools started to provide high-quality education, the businesses of private schools would automatically come to an end.

USAID Mission Director Julie Koenen said she was proud to attend the event. She added that she could not express her happiness in words on the inauguration of the school. At the end of the ceremony, schoolchildren presented a tableau and cultural dance.