Bureaucrats of grade 19 and above may head educational boards

An amendment bill has been prepared to appoint grade 19 and grade 20 bureaucrats as chairmen at Sindh’s educational boards, while a steering committee will also be formed for the supervision and control of and holding authority over all the boards.

The Sindh Educational Boards Amendment Bill, 2024, proposes that a chairman would hold office for a term of three years from the date of the notification of his appointment, and on the expiry of the term of office, he would be eligible for reappointment for such further period as may be specified in the order of the appointment.

Moreover, the chairman will be appointed by the controlling authority either through the direct recruitment process or by being transferred from among the officers of PAS, ex-PCS, PSS and PMS of BPS 19, 20 and above on such terms and conditions as may be determined by the authority.

A steering committee will be formed to supervise, control and hold authority over all the boards established under this Act. The committee’s chairman will be the minister or adviser to the minister for the universities & boards department, or the special assistant to the chief minister on universities.

The universities & boards secretary will be the vice chairman, the universities & boards additional secretary will be the secretary, while the chairmen of all the boards, and the college education and school education directors general will be the members.

Other members will include a representative each of the Inter-Boards Coordination Commission (IBCC) and the Sindh Curriculum Authority, an education policy expert and two eminent educationists appointed by the controlling authority, a technical education expert, the schools additional secretary and the finance secretary or his nominee.

The committee’s members, other than the ex-members, will be appointed for a period of two years, which may be extended for a second period as determined by the government. The government may, at any time, change the composition of the steering committee through a notification.

The committee will oversee the implementation of the policy, and ensure uniformity in financial management, transparency, compliance, and resource allocation and standards, while coordinating and harmonising the functions of all the boards to unify decisions related to curriculum, assessment, integration of technology, teacher training related to examinations and assessment, and institutional recognition.

The committee will conduct regular inspections of the boards through its authorised representatives. The summary related to the amendment bill states that the educational boards in Sindh are working without a formal platform for coordination between their respective chairmen, and the absence of such coordination has resulted in significant discrepancies in examination standards, assessment procedures and other administrative functions.

The summary states that to bridge the gap between all the boards across the country, the IBCC has been established at federal level that has a clear mandate to implement and deal with matters related to examination standardisation, assessment, evaluation and all related matters between the board members.

The IBCC’s establishment has positively affected the examination and evaluation process at the examination boards of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bringing about significant improvement, but no such improvement has been seen at Sindh’s boards.

The summary states that in order to fill the gap of coordination among the chairmen of all the education boards of Sindh, and to carry out the work at the education boards in a smooth and transparent manner, it is appropriate to amend the province’s secondary and intermediate education boards.

The province’s caretaker government headed by Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar had experimented with appointing bureaucrats (commissioners) as chairmen of the educational boards. The experiment failed miserably, and the Sindh High Court later ruled against the appointment of commissioners as chairmen, and dismissed them.