Sindh CM inaugurates ‘SELECT’ digital education monitoring project

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has inaugurated the “SELECT” project, an innovative digital education initiative launched by the Sindh School Education Department.

The program aims to monitor student attendance, improve reading skills among primary students, and enhance the overall quality of education across the province.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Chief Minister Shah said that the SELECT project marks the introduction of Sindh’s first digital attendance monitoring system. The initiative, he added, is designed to strengthen classroom learning, ensure transparency, and create a data-driven approach to managing schools.

“The project will help improve teaching quality in early grades, provide training for teachers, and upgrade the learning environment from primary to middle school levels,” Shah said. “With this digital transformation, school management and leadership will also be modernized.”

The Chief Minister noted that the project operates under the supervision of the Reform Support Unit (RSU) and is supported by the School Attendance and Management Reporting System (SAMRS), which digitally records students’ and teachers’ attendance, registration, and grade promotions.

The system includes Geo-fencing and an offline mode, allowing full functionality even in areas with limited internet access.

He explained that the system will help identify reasons for student absenteeism and enable timely corrective action. The SELECT project has so far been implemented in 600 schools across Sindh, including 120 primary, 480 middle, and 79 high schools.

A total of 137,000 students have been registered under the program, of which 79,730 are girls and 57,501 are boys. According to official data, 99 percent of schools now report attendance through SAMRS. The major causes of absenteeism identified include illness (44 percent), domestic issues (21 percent), and family emergencies (16 percent).

Shah highlighted that between April and May 2025, student attendance improved by 16 percent, while the number of high-risk students decreased from 32.5 percent to 23 percent.

He said the system has significantly reduced school dropouts, ensuring that every child’s record is now linked with NADRA-verified B-Form numbers, creating a unified and transparent database.

“The new online attendance system will automatically record students’ presence in government schools, while teachers and parents will have real-time access to attendance data,” the Chief Minister added.