HYDERABAD:
The Sindh Children’s Parliament, which held a session in Hyderabad on January 19, appears far from being satisfied with the state of education in the province as it finds the allocated budget lacking and its utilisation missing.
The Children’s Parliament was a project of Thar Education Alliance launched with the support of the Reform Support Unit Sindh and Unicef to promote educational rights and bring out-of-school children back to school in Sindh. Children from 30 districts of Sindh were part of this initiative.
Presided by the Speaker Muskan Mallah, the session saw speeches from the parliament’s Chief Minister Syeda Rida Batool Kazmi, Opposition Leader Ashok Kumar and five ministers besides members from different districts.
Senior Program Officer of Reform Support Unit Sindh Mujeeb Khathri, Sindh Education Foundation’s Ali Usman, Partab Shivani, Qurat Madasir, and Priyanka also addressed the session which was attended by Mayor Kashif Ali Shoro at the Municipal Committee Hall in Qasimabad.
Kazmi raised concerns over inadequate utilisation of the province’s education budget. She suggested that the students should be engaged in the budget planning process.
She said the parliament has founded the poor state of schools during its visits to several districts of Sindh.
Kazmi also underlined the need of providing a safe environment to girls in order to encourage them and their parents to send their daughters to schools.
The opposition leader complained that the percentage of the provincial budget from the government’s total annual budget was insufficient.
He believed that with the prevailing shortage of funds, the government could not provide quality education.
According to him, the frequent transfers of teachers and that too often during students’ exams was also hurting the schooling. Kumar emphasised on the need for increasing the number of high schools to reduce the number of out-of-school children.
The provincial children’s minister Siraj Ali, Zaheer Brohi and Zara Mujeeb said the government ought to address the quality of education which required dedicated policy and its implementation. They also raised concern over a lack of extracurricular activities for girls and the absence of science labs and playgrounds in schools.
The parliament’s session passed resolutions demanding measures to address the shortage of textbooks; establishing science and computer labs in high schools; and enhancing the education budget in Sindh. They also called for supply of electricity, safety measures for the schools and a continuous process of the teachers’ training.
Published in Express Tribune on 20 January 2025.