Government schools start enrollment blitz
After receiving a less than satisfactory response to their annual enrollment drive in classes pre-nursery to matriculation, government schools in the Rawalpindi district have started a marketing blitz on all available channels to attract more students.
Usually, government schools enrol new students across the province from February to April 15 every year. However, due to a lockdown, imposed by the government to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), schools were closed for much of the peak enrollment period while parents could not leave their homes to approach schools either.
The government also decided to pause the enrollment campaign, resuming it after a delay of three months on June 29.
However, this was not enough for many schools to enrol students. In fact, officials said that around 95 per cent of government schools did not receive even a single application for enrollment of students in the first two days after the enrollment campaign resumed.
To attract attention, the education department has started a campaign to market their schools by putting up billboards, banners and posters on key traffic intersections and outside the schools. They have even turned to social media.
In the public messaging, the administration of public schools has listed the qualities of their institutions, including the fact that they have highly educated teachers, including those holding a masters, MPhil and PhD degrees, modern computer laboratories, wide playgrounds, and advanced teaching systems, free textbooks and uniforms, all of which are being provided in nominal fees of just Rs20.
Education department officials, while conceding the poor enrollment rate so far, hoped that their campaign will help boost these numbers once the educational institutions reopen from August.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2020.