Sindh Education Minister Fires Back: UNESCO Rates Our Curriculum Above Other Provinces!
Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah has strongly refuted recent criticism by Awaam Pakistan Party’s Secretary General Miftah Ismail, defending the province’s education system and citing a UNESCO assessment that ranked Sindh’s curriculum higher than other regions.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Shah dismissed Miftah Ismail’s claims about Sindh’s declining literacy rates, stating that the Planning Commission report referenced by Ismail had already been contested by the provincial government as “contrary to facts.”
The minister’s response comes after Ismail, a former PML-N leader, slammed the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for poor governance in Sindh, particularly in education. Ismail had claimed that despite an expenditure of approximately Rs4,000 billion since 2008, Sindh’s literacy rate saw a marginal drop from 58% to 57.5% in 2025.
Shah countered these allegations, arguing that the report relied on outdated 2022-23 data, a period when Sindh was grappling with devastating floods that displaced millions and disrupted education reporting.
Citing the same report, Shah pointed out that Sindh’s Naushahro Feroze district outperformed over half of Punjab’s districts and all of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s, securing the 69th position nationally. He also highlighted inconsistencies in the report, noting that while it claimed a literacy decline, it also recorded enrollment increases at primary (3.2%), middle (7.6%), high (5%), and higher secondary (8.8%) levels.
Shah provided updated figures, stating that Sindh’s school-age population (5-16 years) is projected to reach 17.78 million by 2025, up from 16.89 million in 2023. To tackle out-of-school children, the province has introduced a non-formal education curriculum and aims for significant improvements by 2030.
The minister criticized federal institutions for conducting surveys without provincial consultation, questioning their credibility, especially after alleged census inaccuracies. He also defended Sindh’s education infrastructure, acknowledging flood damage to 20,000 schools but rejecting performance criticisms tied to natural disasters.
Additionally, Shah highlighted Sindh’s pioneering teacher licensing policy and explained that geographical challenges—such as deserts, mountains, and poor network coverage—affect technology-based rankings unfairly.
“Blaming Sindh’s education system for flood-related setbacks is unjust,” Shah asserted, reaffirming the province’s commitment to improving education despite external challenges.