Sindh’s education sector faced more lows than highs in year 2021

During 2021, Sindh’s school education & literacy and college education departments remained unsuccessful in achieving their targets, with the entire academic year lasting only 98 days, largely owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Due to the health emergency, annual examinations were conducted only for the optional subjects. Moreover, in collaboration with the school education & literacy and college education departments, the health department vaccinated 1.4 million students enrolled in grades nine to 12 against the coronavirus.

The experiment of online classes not only remained unproductive but it was also restricted to private schools and colleges. Public schools were unequipped to conduct online classes. Throughout last year, not a single online class was held by any public school in the province.

Due to the ambiguity of the Centralised Admission Policy, the college education department could not award admissions to all students. The department had unofficially made it mandatory upon every student to furnish their domicile at the time of admission. The requirement, however, was withdrawn after it was widely criticised.

Owing to the reshuffling of the Sindh cabinet, the provincial government handed over the portfolio of education to Syed Sardar Ali Shah, while Muhammad Ismail Rahoo assumed charge of the universities & boards department. However, important positions in the school education & literacy department remained vacant.

The post of Karachi schools director also remained vacant. Likewise, in the seven educational boards, administrative positions such as controller of examinations, secretary and research director remained unfilled, while no regular vice chancellor was appointed at the University of Karachi.

The provincial government took no measure to uplift the Sindh Higher Education Commission, due to which the body could not play its role in addressing the financial crunch being faced by the province’s universities.

The Sindh government, however, started the process to recruit 46,549 teachers across the province. The government also closed 4,901 non-viable schools in different districts. Moreover, two-year degree programmes were declared illegal by the government, due to which all the universities introduced associate degree programmes.

Throughout last year, a tug of war continued between the federal and Sindh education ministers over the implementation of the Single National Curriculum. Using its constitutional right in accordance with the 18th amendment, the provincial government also categorically rejected the National Education Policy.

The education department lifted the ban on teachers’ transfers and postings. The education minister also ordered a ban on the registration of new private colleges until the completion of quality checking procedures.

Transparency International revealed in its report last year that the school education & literacy department was purchasing dual desks for Rs29,500 — at a 320 per cent higher rate. The department later cancelled the procurement process.

Against the Rs26 billion sanctioned for the development projects of the education department, Rs7.59 billion was released but only Rs3.24 billion was used by the department during 2021.

In December 2021, the Sindh High Court directed the provincial government to ensure that 100 high schools in the province were raised to higher secondary level within a month.

The college education department introduced biometric attendance for students. Initially, biometric machines were installed at around 50 colleges in Karachi and another 50 in other districts of the province. This year, the department will install biometric machines at all colleges and higher secondary schools.

Tangible measures are yet to be taken for the enrolment of 6.5 million children who are not attending schools. The figure makes for 44 per cent of the total children in the province between the ages of five and 16 years.

Plagiarism, substandard researches and, especially, the retraction of over 260 research papers produced by more than 1,000 Pakistani faculty members of various public and private universities remained the talk of the town last year.

The federal government removed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman from his position, and introduced two HEC ordinances within a gap of five days. The Centre also failed to appoint a regular VC at the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science & Technology.

Responding to The News stories, the HEC vowed to straighten its policies to counter fake research. But the overall performance of the commission remained disappointing. During 2021, almost all the public universities were facing financial crises while conducting online classes, with holding exams turning out to be the most difficult challenge for the educational institutions.