By Fakhr e Alam
PESHAWAR, Aug 30 (APP):The provincial government is all set to take Prime Minister Imran Khan’s initiated vision “Education For All ” to further heights in the incumbent tenure as it considers education an indispensable for socio-economic development of the people.
The KP government under this visionary initiative in previous tenure had completed scores of gigantic projects, increased its budget, provided missing facilities in government schools and also enrolled out of school street children to revitalize this key sector.
As a result of these reforms and projects in education sector the people of province entrusted confidence and PTI won 2018 general elections by two third majority to form government for a second consecutive term, first ever by any.
Arshad Khan, Special Secretary Education Department told APP that in PTI’s previous regime some
55,000 teachers’ on merit induction helped improve standard of education significantly.
Arshad said a state of the art Cadet College for Girls in Mardan setup by PTI Government was
a landmark achievement and an evidence that what importance the party was giving to women education
to bring them this segment in national mainstream.
The Secretary said an hefty amount of Rs30 billion on provision of missing facilities including washrooms, additional class rooms, boundary walls, playing areas and furniture to government
schools was incurred to achieve desired results in this most important sector.
The KP’s education budget, which stood at Rs 63 billion in 2013, was jumped to record Rs138 billion in 2017, showing a massive increase of 114pc. “It reflects PTI’s commitment towards education,” officials in KP Education Department said.
As a result of these measures, peoples’ confidence was restored over government schools as the condition of some 24000 schools in the province had a new look and raised the standard of education significantly.
The PTI had also accepted challenge of reconstruction of 760 schools ignored in Abbototabad, Haripur, Manshra, Batagram and Torghar due to devastating 2015 earthquake.
In addition to equipping high and higher secondary schools with IT labs under local and foreign standardization project, the KP government constructed playing areas in 7,000 schools besides 157 playgrounds to ensure students’ mental and physical growth.
PTI government’s carrot and stick policy brought back nearly 1,50,000 students from private education sector to public schools and effective monitoring system helped ensured 86% attendance of the teachers and relevant staff.
Moreover, a series of School Quality Management Initiative (SQMI) trainings was launched to improve field-level monitoring and professional assistance of teachers at primary level.
Through SQMI, Assistant Sub Division Education Officers (ASDEO) was directed to observe and share immediate feedback for further improvement in teaching practices.
Each ASDEO is supposed to observe a class of 35 minutes using the Android-based application on his tablet PC provided by the education department besides assessing student learning of all present students of class 2 and provide feedback to the teachers on students learning.
Nearly 10,000 schools were visited before the summer-break. In these visits teaching practices were observed, students were assessed, school management was observed and on spot feedback to the teacher and head, teachers were provided.
Another key initiative was an excellence award announced by the OTI government to encourage hardworking teachers and also to create an environment of competition among teachers to achieve desired goals.
Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) was established under which a principal who had shown good performance was awarded with Rs100,000 and teacher with Rs50,000 and Rs200 per month stipend was given to girl student of class 6-8 and Rs500 per month from class 9 to 10th.
Likewise, KP Private Schools Regularity Authority (KPPSRA) was setup to regulate and monitor performance of private schools in the province.
Work on construction of 70 girls and 30 boys higher secondary schools is in full swing and directives are issued for its completion at earliest, the official remarked.
Under 283mln UK pounds DFID Project, infrastructure of Govt schools, provision of missing facilities, technical assistance for capacity building and quality assurance of staff was being ensured in the province. Through USAID project, the official said reading skills of Grade 2 and 3 students were being improved in 15 districts of KP and this projects have brought laurels in education sectors in KP .
Asked about education reforms in recently merged tribal districts, the official said KP Education Department was ready to shoulder responsibility of tribal children, saying, “We are ready to open schools even in government rest houses and surplus buildings of tribal chieftains and maliks in Mohmand, Bajaur, North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Orakzai, Kurram and Khyber districts, if provided for this noble cause.
