‘It is easy to go for teaching but hard to enhance quality’

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that when a person adopts the teaching profession, they have to teach classes for at least the next three decades, which means they have to prepare their students considering their own future and the future of the country.

“I am sure the lecturers who are being given offer orders today would take upon themselves the responsibility of enhancing the respect of their profession by generating properly educated, well-behaved and responsible youth.”

This Shah said on Monday while speaking at a ceremony held at the CM House for the distribution of offer letters among the newly selected lecturers for government colleges. The programme was organised by Minister for Education Syed Sardar Shah.

The CM and the education minister distributed offer letters to the male and female candidates who have passed the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) examination for lectureship. The offer letters were given to those candidates who have cleared their recruitment examination.

The chief executive said that it is an easy task to opt for the teaching profession, but it is quite difficult to take on all its responsibilities because it is the profession of the prophets. “Teaching is passion and a commitment to your own self and your student, to society and the country,” he said. Citing the quote ‘Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more’, he pointed out that “we are paying both these costs”.

The CM told the audience that over 100,000 candidates appeared for 1,500 posts of lecturers in the province. After a lengthy process, the SPSC selected 1,500 of the best minds to task them with preparing the future of the country, he said.

“Insha-Allah, these 1,500 new teachers selected through a competitive process would turn up in their classes in August [after the summer holidays], and would demonstrate their teaching skills.”

Shah said that on the directives of Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the process of the recruitment of 50,000 schoolteachers through a third party has been completed.

The CM said that on the recommendation of the education minister, 1,200 positions of MPhil- and PhD-qualified teachers had been sent to the SPSC for selection. He said he was trying to strengthen and improve the education system by introducing modern teaching methods and recruiting qualified teachers so that the province and country could flourish. “It is education that enables you to compete in the world, and Insha-Allah we will.”

Shah said the education minister had told him that the system of attendance of the students and the teachers in public colleges has been digitised. “We want the teachers to demonstrate professional teaching skills, and the students to get engaged in the learning process, which is why the attendance of the teachers and the students is being emphasised.”

The CM disclosed that 28 libraries at the colleges have been digitised, and the number of digital libraries would reach 58 by the end of the current financial year. “This is the digital age; the college course, lectures and books are available online, and with the establishment of digital libraries in colleges, students would be able to listen to the lectures being uploaded to the system, and use the books they need to make notes.” Shah said that now his government, with the help of the Aga Khan and other leading educational institutions, is launching a licensing system for teachers to improve the quality of education.