KARACHI   -   Sindh Minister for Education and Mines & Minerals Syed Sardar Ali Shah has said that under the non-for­mal education strategy, out-of-school children would be provided with the opportunity to complete their educa­tion in a short period, while vocation­al education would also be provided during this time.

In this regard, a Non-Formal Educa­tion Authority will be established in Sindh, which will be operated in col­laboration with Unicef and through a public-private partnership. He made these remarks while presiding over a meeting held in Karachi, attended by Secretary Education Zahid Ali Ab­basi, and other officials.

The provincial minister stated that under the non-formal educa­tion strategy, a child who drops out of school will be able to complete education up to the eighth grade within four years, and with the help of this strategy, over two million additional children in Sindh will be able to receive education in the coming four years.

He said that Sindh is the only province in Pakistan that has not only developed a curriculum for non-formal education but has also arranged course work. He stated that non-formal education centers will be established in areas where the number of out-of-school chil­dren is high for the convenience of children who drop out of school. Shah said that our biggest challenge after primary education is dropout, and keeping this in view, primary schools will be upgraded.

The education minister said that there is also a need to pay more at­tention to the STEM education sys­tem in schools; we need to focus on teaching subjects like science, technology, engineering, and math­ematics to children. In this regard, it is also necessary to organize sci­ence exhibitions to generate inter­est among children.

He directed the Directorate of Private Schools and district educa­tion officers to organize science ex­hibitions at the district, divisional, and provincial levels so that more youths in Sindh can demonstrate their abilities. 

He said that we need to promote our good things; as based on some bad things and challenges, we can­not hold back our good initiatives. Shah, while giving instructions in a meeting held with the officials of the Directorate of Private Institutions, said that there is a need to further improve the mechanism for moni­toring private schools; in this re­gard, 35 inspectors will be appoint­ed for monitoring private schools in Sindh, who will be appointed at the district level in Sindh, while two inspectors will be appointed in each district of Karachi.