Mahmood for action against underperforming DEOs

K-P chief minister directs installing surveillance cameras at examination centres

PESHAWAR: While expressing annoyance over the performance of District Education Officers (DEOs) of certain districts of the province, K-P Chief Minister Mahmood Khan threw down the gauntlet to these DEOs to either improve their performance or face action.

This came on the same day that a report of the District Performance Scorecard (DPS) by the Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) and UK’s Department for International Development (DIFD) stated that efforts of DEOs had helped increase attendance of students and teachers at educational institutions across the province for January.

Presiding over a meeting of the Elementary and Secondary Education Department (ESED) on Thursday, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) CM Mahmood Khan directed the ESED secretary to take legal action against al such officers and also seek their regular performance reports.

The chief minister also directed to install surveillance cameras at the examination centres to make the process more transparent and to root out cheating.

He also ordered to include one chapter on ‘Seerat un Nabi (SAW) in the syllabus for character building of the students.

The chief minister was informed that recruitment against vacant posts of teachers was in progress and orders have been issued for appointing some 1,000 teachers. Orders to fill the remaining vacancies are expected to be issued by the end of next month.

The meeting was told that the process to fill as many as 9,440 vacant positions in the settled districts and 2,115 in the newly-merged tribal districts (NMTDs) will be completed soon. The recruitment process has been initiated for an additional 12,156 primary school teachers (PST) and it is expected to be completed by June 30 this year.

Similarly, 4,500 new posts have been created in schools of NMTDs while a further 530 posts are being created. Recruitment against these newly-created posts will also be completed by the end of June, the meeting was told.

To improve teachers attendance in schools, the meeting was informed that over 1, 000 teachers have been suspended for absence and the Independent Monitoring Unit have been extended to 90 per cent schools of the NMTDs while service rules for Education Monitoring Authority for the NMTDS have been drafted.

Similarly, the educational voucher scheme has been extended to 22 districts of the province. The scheme will help provide financial assistance to some 23,652 students in 462 different schools of the province at a total cost of Rs180 million.

CM Mahmood further directed to expedite work on the reconstruction of partially damaged schools in Peshawar district, the establishment of a cadet college in Orakzai district, provision of scholarships to students in NMTDs and extension of the e-transfer policy to the entire province.

The chief minister stated that the establishment of a cadet college in Upper Dir district will be included in the next Annual Development Programme.

CM Mahmood Khan was further told that Rs15 million has been disbursed to various DEOs for better performance under the District Incentive Programme. Furthermore, Rs1.3 billion has been provided to fulfil the missing facilities in different schools while Rs150 million have already been released for the improvement of play areas in various schools. It was informed that scholarships for the student of NMTDs will also be provided soon for which all the requirements have been already completed.

Budget for girls’ education

Meanwhile, K-P Education Minister Akbar Ayub Khan on Thursday said that the K-P government has decided to spend around 70 per cent of its education budget on women’s education.

Addressing a ceremony at the Mardan Cadet College for Girls, the minister said that despite financial issues, the provincial government is committed to providing sufficient funds for the promotion of education in the province.

Akbar further said that the government is working to appointment only female teachers at the primary level which will not only empower women economically but will also improve quality of education in the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2020.