Initiatives for education: Drive aims to enrol 0.7m children in public institutes

Government promises stipend to girls in order to reduce dropout rate .


Asad Zia September 08, 2014

PESHAWAR:


With the objective of enrolling 0.7 million out-of-school children in this academic session, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Elementary and Secondary Education department launched an enrolment campaign on Monday. The day was marked worldwide as International Literacy Day.


Elementary education department secretary Afzal Latif inaugurated the drive at Government Higher Secondary School No-1 Peshawar.

Speaking to the media, Latif said there are 1.4 million children aged five or above who are out of school in K-P. “The aim of the government’s campaign is to get these children into public primary schools,” said Latif.

Moreover, the secretary said in order to decrease the dropout rate in K-P, the government plans to bring in a public-private partnership system.

“There are two main reasons why students drop out of schools. The first is the unavailability of teachers and the second is the teachers’ harsh behaviour with students,” explained Latif.

According to the official, Rs1 billion has been allocated for teacher training which will focus on behaviour in the classroom and teaching methods. Private school teachers will also be given the opportunity to attend these trainings, he said.

Provincial Institute of Teacher Education (PITE) Director Jamaluddin told The Express Tribune the education department intends to get 0.7 million children admitted in government schools this year.

“This year, schools in rural areas are our priority,” said Jamaluddin. In the past, primary school buildings had two classrooms and two teachers but the government is now working on providing six classrooms and the same number of teachers, he added.

“In an effort to decrease the dropout rate in public sector schools, the government will give Rs200 per month as a stipend to girls. This stipend will be doubled in underdeveloped districts like Kohistan and Torghar for both boys and girls,” he added.

According to Jamaluddin, the education department has formed a committee in all districts tasked with keeping a check on the availability of facilities in government schools as well as teachers’ attendance and performance.

He said officials of the department as well as third-party donor organisations will inspect the performance of these committees.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9th, 2014.

COMMENTS (1)

Liaqat Yousufzai | 9 years ago | Reply

Let's make the drive a success story by admitting in school at least out of school child (if there is any) in our locality.

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