Articles and letters may be edited for the purposes of clarity and space. They are published in good faith with a view to enlightening all the stakeholders. However, the contents of these writings may not necessarily match the views of the newspaper.
Libraries
in school
School is primary educational institution where children learn to read and write. And a library in school plays important role in entertaining students and teachers in the learning process. Having set up a library in each school, it would foster keenness amongst the taught. Up-to-date library would inculcate a reading habit in children and enhance our children-education rate. In this way, children-drop-out rate would also be reduced.
Library encourages poor-child-education, because mostly poor segments of society avoid education due to expensive books. The school library is a good way to enhance one‘s knowledge and it begets studying habits in students. It creates a taste for books after school life. The library creates love for books among the weak boys. It gives opportunities to make best use of our leisure time. It gives us day-to-day information of the world. In fact school library is a treasure house of knowledge.
The Government should set up libraries in all schools with single-room: with nearly ten to fifteen almirahs of books. Books should be diverse in nature: text books, travels, biographies, history, geography and so on. Besides books, there should also be newspapers, magazines, journals and periodicals. Encouraging libraries would work in growing literacy-rate in the country. If one looks in schools of developed-countries, one would find every class of school with having separate class-library system, besides school library. Therefore, we should, at least, initiate the school library at first instance.
IMTIAZ ESSA HALEPOTO
Jamshoro
Upgradation of clerks
Clerks are backbone of government machinery. In every department, most of the file work is performed by clerks. Their service structure and pay package is, however, not in accordance with their duty. The existing service structure is based on a four-tier formula with junior clerk in BPS 11 at the lowest level and Superintendent in BPS 16/17 at the highest.
A junior clerk, in basic pay scale11, gets a meagre amount of 15 to 18 thousand a month while the highest officer in the cadre, superintendent, 40 to 50 thousand. In comparison, employees in other cadres enjoy a better pay package with better prospects of promotion to higher positions. Consider this: a lecturer, appointed initially in BPS 17 can go higher up to BPS 21; similarly a librarian up to BPS 20. Needless to mention other cadres here. In view of importance of this particular part of government machinery and the heavy work-load they are carrying, it is incumbent upon authorities to re-consider the service structure of clerks. Two suggestions must be considered: change in nomenclature and up-gradation of positions.
The existing nomenclature which sounds a bit orthodox must be replaced with some appealing names. A junior clerk with office coordinator, senior clerk with senior office coordinator, assistant with admin officer or AD and Superintendent with supervisor or deputy director.
Similarly, junior clerk (office coordinator) must be upgraded to BPS 14, senior clerk (senior office coordinator to BPS-16, Assistant (Admin Officer) to BPS17 and Superintendent (Supervisor) to BPS-18. Moreover, for further promotion, an additional position must be created with a basic pay scale-19. This restructuring will not only boost morale of employees but will also help uprooting the menace of corruption.
SHAHID ALI KHAN
Bajaur
Poor drainage system
I write to express my concern over the issue of poor drainage in the city, especially during the winter season which causes much inconvenience to the residents. The rainy season of our city had plentiful rainfall. The entire city was flooded.
Some of us will be shocked to know that even after a month of the rainfall the rain water has not been drained. The simple reason behind the flooding of the city is poor drainage system. The rain water has been drained from high areas. So the problem is with low areas, where the drainage is defective. The PWD department’s inefficiency has led to many mishaps on roads.
The stagnated water has been causing serious health issues. Malaria, dengue, chikan-guniya, apart from stink and travelling problems have made the life of residents literal infernal. The concerned authorities’ apathy to the ongoing problems is outrageously shocking. I humbly request to the higher authorities to look into the matter and speed up the repairing of the faulty drainage system.
HUSSAIN PARKAR
Karachi
