Peshawar (PR): The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa govt has enhanced its allocation for primary& Secondary education to over Rs 100 Billion this year introducing a number of reforms. Specific attention, under the reforms agenda, is being given to provide basic facilities at schools throughout KP and to ensure everychild enrols in educational institutions.
In order to promote education in every segment of the society, Community schools have been established for girls with the aim of gender equality in education and accessing the far flung and underdeveloped parts of the province.
From the year 2010-13, 196 community schools were constructed benefitting 13, 651 girls. After declaring educational emergency in the province, the present government has increased the number of community schools and 1,251 community schools have been constructed between 2013-16. These schools have provided education opportunities to 43,220 girls who were previously out of schools.
Moreover, the present government has spent Rs. 2.5 Billion in purchasing 45 million books that were provided to 4.1 Million students free of cost. Additionally, 443,204 girls were provided with education stipends amounting to Rs 2.37 from 2014-16.
Under the talent hunt programme,scholarships worthRs 260 Million were distributed among585 students annuallyover the past 3 years. In 2015-16, cash vouchers worth Rs 336 Million have been distributed among 13,858 deserving students to continue their education in quality institutions.
For promotion of modern and quality learning methods, 670 IT labs have been established since 2013 in schools throughout the province.
For the first time in Khyber PakhtunKhwa, Awards and Prizes worth Rs 55 Million weregiven to 840 Teachers based on their performance. 2,527 tablets worth Rs 89 Million were also distributed among teachers. Additionally, cash rewards worth Rs 55 Million were distributed among 960 teachers based on their performance in 2014-15 alone.
This amount has now been doubled for the coming year to reward more teachers motivating them towards better service delivery. The criteria for performance is based on Increase in enrollments, better results in SSC exams, participation rate in SSC Exams and improved teacher’s/students attendance.
In order to reform the education sector and ensure capacity development, 66,905 teachers have been trained throughout the province since 2013at an estimated cost of Rs 800 Million.
Similarly, a total of Rs 1.6 Billion have been spent on training 157,000 Parent Teacher Councils (PTCs). The PTCs are aimed at improving literacy rates and involve more parents in their children’s education. The PTCs comprise five parents, a senior school teacher and a retired government employee.
The Govt has also adopted a Merit Based Teachers’ Recruitment Policy. The new policy has ensured eradicating human discretion and recommendations in the recruitment process. 25,000 teachers have been recruited through NTS since June 2013 in order to meet the teacher student ratio which is one teacher for every 40 students. Previously, between 2003 and 2013, less than 2500 teachers were recruited through NTS which promoted favoritism in the appointment process.
Moreover, in order to streamline and institutionalize the education sector, the present government has promoted independent monitoring units to monitor and evaluate the performance of teachers and school staff.
So far, 300 teachers have been terminated on grounds ofabsenteeism and a recovery of Rs 800 Million was also made possible. Similarly, disciplinary actions have been initiated against 7,500 teachers. These steps have brought down the absenteeism rate by almost 10% whereas 441 nonfunctional schools have been made functional.
Similarly, Biometric Attendance System have been installed in all the 76 offices of the education department across the province and are also being installed in 480 Higher Secondary Schools across KP.
In the infrastructure sector, the government has also approved a new policy under which every primary school will have 6 rooms for students as opposed to three rooms earlier. Under the new initiative, more than 200,000 students will be able to study in classrooms instead of sitting in open air.
Similarly,2.13 Billion have been spent for purchase of Furniture in more than 5000 schools since 2013. According to figures of the education department, 430,000 children are now sitting on chairs instead of floor mats.
Moreover, in addition to holding summer camps in summer vacations, 2583 play areas were built in schools throughout the province. Previously,between 2003-13, there were no play areas in schools of KP. Furthermore, 141 Sports grounds were also built since May 2013 and 5,000 schools including High Secondary, High and Middle Schools were provided with sports kits since May 2013 at an expense of Rs 500 million.
