KARACHI: The Sindh government has granted financial powers to school heads in order to empower public schools across the province, said a statement issued on March 13.
Acting on the directives of Minister for Education Syed Sardar Ali Shah, the School Education & Literacy Department has made meaningful progress under the School Specific Budget (SSB) initiative by designating 31,633 school heads as Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) for the utilisation of funds and for this purpose, Rs18.67 billion has been released for the ongoing financial year.
In his statement, the education minister said that “school heads should treat their official responsibility as a social responsibility and play their role in improving the condition of schools.” He further clarified that the designation of school heads aims to make the administrative system more effective and efficient.
According to details, an office order issued by the department has appointed principals, headmasters, headmistresses, and in-charge headmasters as DDOs. The funds released to schools will be utilised under the relevant cost centres.
All funds for the financial year 2025–26 will be spent after fulfilling the required codal formalities, while to ensure continuity of the initiative, DDO assignments will not be changed until June 30, 2026.
Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2026.