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KARACHI, Jan 27 (APP):The School Education and Literacy Department of Sindh will introduce a multilingual education policy to teach language as a subject in Sindh for nurturing the fundamental language skills of the children .
The British Council will provide technical assistance for the initiative aimed at enabling students, speaking different languages, to effectively acquire basic reading and writing skills of their mother tongue along with speaking proficiency.
The decisions, according to a statement issued on Tuesday, were taken in a meeting of a British Council delegation with the Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah. The delegation led by Helen Sylvester, Regional Director of the British Council South Asia included James Hampson, Country Director of the British Council Pakistan and Manager EaSTE-II Program Muhammad Umar while Secretary School Education Zahid Ali Abbasi and other officers were present.
During the meeting, detailed discussions were held on the improvement of education in Sindh, professional training of teachers and measures to make teaching standards more effective.
Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah, said that the Multilingual Education Policy will assist in developing a standard and uniform methodology for teaching language as a subject.
Underscoring importance of professional qualifications and training in effective teaching of language as a subject, Sardar Shah said that Sindh has a curriculum in English, Urdu and Sindhi and the Multilingual Policy will help determining the methodology for effective grooming of four fundamental skills- Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing- of the students so that they could learn, understand and express themselves better.
Reviewing the second phase of the English as a Subject for Teachers and Educators (EaSTE-II) program, the meeting was informed that work is underway on the training module after the official launch of the program that will train one thousand mentors and 30000 teachers.
The Education Minister termed professional development of newly recruited teachers as an important goal and said this training module will prove to be an important milestone in improving the teaching skills of the English language.
The meeting also discussed Sindh’s cluster policy. It was informed that 1794 clusters have been established in the province which will be run through a multi-layer leadership model, while all cluster heads will be provided with education leadership and management training.
Discussing expansion of scope of Early Childhood Education and Foundational Learning, the British delegation said that aspects of Early Childhood Education and Foundational Learning will also be included in the teacher training module, which will help in improving the initial educational skills of the students.
The delegation appreciated the educational initiatives of the Sindh government and assured all possible cooperation and expressed hope that the EaSTE-II program will improve the quality of teaching in Sindh.