K-P to merge 725 schools

Institutions with low enrolment, performance to be affected

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to merge 725 schools in the province which have low enrollment rates and are located within a few kilometres of each other.

The decision was taken after the government discovered that there were a large number of schools set up by the previous governments without following the criteria for construction of new schools. 725.

According to the Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Atif Khan, most of the merged schools had been built by the previous governments for political gains.



“These schools have low enrollment [rates] and have been built in unfeasible areas,” Atif said, adding, “their maintenance continues to be a huge burden on the provincial exchequer with no obvious output.”

He further explained that schools throughout the province, which have fewer than 40 students enroled, are being merged with schools which are located within a two-kilometre radius.

Since 2013, the E&SE Department has set up over 2,700 new schools in the province. Of these, 300 are higher secondary schools — taking their total number to 605, nearly doubled from the 308 schools in 2013.

Moreover, data released by the department on Tuesday indicates that the number of high schools had risen from just 1,796 in 2013 to 2,220.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2017.