CM Murad for quality education to deaf children

KARACHI, Oct 30 (APP):Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday said that in the province there were around 300,000 deaf children and majority of them have no access to quality education, therefore he was
committed to provide them best education.
He said this while presiding over a meeting here.
Special Assistant to CM for programmes related to differently
abled persons Qasim Naveed, a delegation of DEAF Reach comprising its
CEO Richard Geary, Director Administration Daniel Marc Lanthier, Ms.
Sarah Shaikh, Director Development Ms Sarah Shaikh attended the
meeting.
Murad said that he had a plan to involve the experts to
create digital learning of sign language and capacity building of the
teachers.
The DEAF Reach is a very good organization and they are valuable
partners of the provincial governments,he said.
DEAF Reach CEO Richard Geary said that the objectives of the
chief minister could be achieved by developing and making available
Pakistan Sign Language (PSL) digital learning resources across Sindh
and launching of training programme for teachers across 51 Special
Needs Centers in Sindh. “We will have to train around 500 teachers,” he
said.
In the meeting various issues and matter were discussed and the
chief minister decided to create and develop Pakistan Sign Language
learning resources at primary grade levels with focus on literacy and
numeracy.
The PSL digital resources would go on PSL portal with access
across Sindh.
Under the training programme, as decided by the CM Sindh,
training for all teachers working in 51 Special Education Centres
would be started under a Teachers training programme.
The PSL resources would also be distributed in all the centres
and would also be installed in the class rooms.
The DEAF Reach team told the CM Sindh that Sukkur Campus,
Nawabshah campus have become over-crowded and needed expansion.
The CM Sindh directed Secretary Special education to get Jacob
Lines Complex, Karachi completed on war footings so that it could be
utilized.
The under construction STEVTA building at Sukkur should also be
completed on war footings.
The CM Sindh said that education of differently-abled children
was quite expensive in private sector.
Many students in Sukkur Campus were on waiting list. This shows
that the parents are interested to enroll their differently abled
children in government schools to make them useful citizen of the
country, he said.
It was worked out that each student at government centres would
cost Rs 6800/ to Sindh government.
This cost includes tuition fee Rs 2400, transportation Rs 1500,
lunch Rs 940, supplies for students Rs 700, vocational training and
material Rs 360, medical care Rs 300, parents training programme Rs
300 and teachers training Rs 400.
On that, Murad Ali Shah said that it was a noble cause and he
would not hesitate to invest for education of differently abled
children.