Sindh govt to hand over its school buildings to charities

The Sindh government will fully support the proposal of handing over its school buildings to genuine and committed charities to ensure quality schooling to children from deprived families in the province, said Syed Nasir Hussain Shah.

The planning & development and energy minister was speaking at a ceremony held at the Quaid-e-Azam House Museum on Fatima Jinnah Road to celebrate 13 years of uninterrupted service by the non-profit Al-Furqan Welfare Organisation (AFWO) in the province to impart quality schooling to children from underprivileged areas.

Shah said the provincial government had passed laws to allow bona fide non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to adopt public health and educational facilities under public-private partnership to run them to provide the maximum advantage to the underprivileged. Prestigious non-profits are already running many renowned health and educational institutions, he added.

He praised the untiring efforts of devoted charities to provide quality education to children from disadvantaged families, and appealed to generous donors and philanthropists to fully support such genuine charitable causes.

He said the provincial government would extend the utmost support to such bona fide non-profits in the education sector that are striving to enrol out-of-school children. The provincial government will also expedite the campaign to instal solar panels at the premises of educational institutions to help them decrease their electricity expenses, he added.

Culture Minister Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah backed the idea of handing over government school buildings to genuine NGOs for their best utilisation to spread education in the province. Shah said the heritage sites and holiday resorts in the province, including the Quaid-e-Azam House Museum and the Keenjhar Lake, are available for conducting functions and recreational activities to schools being run by charities for children from underserved areas.

AFWO founder and President Rubina Faryal Asif said her non-profit had ventured into the education sector of the province 13 years ago with a one-room school enrolling 16 children and hiring the services of two teachers.

Rubina said her charity is now running 16 schools with an enrolment of 3,000 children from underserved areas of Karachi and other parts of Sindh, adding that 120 graduates of the AFWO’s schools are getting college-level education.

She said that up to 75 per cent of the students enrolled at her NGO’s schools are girls. The AFWO aims to expand the number of its schools to 150, with a capacity to enrol 10,000 more out-of-school children over the next five years, she added.

She also said her charity can achieve this target in a few years if spacious government school buildings are handed over to it. She thanked the energy department for installing solar panels at her NGO’s schools to slash their monthly energy expenses.

Fisheries & Livestock Minister Muhammad Ali Malkani and renowned actor Behroz Sabzwari also attended the event, and praised the efforts of devoted NGOs for enrolling out-of-school children in the province.