Education reforms: Independent unit to monitor public schools from next month

Work on training all parent teacher committees across K-P will begin soon.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Department of Education will have an Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) from next month which will collect data on schools, teachers, students, attendance and other requirements.

According to a press release issued on Monday, the IMU will consist of 485 trained personnel and will not only improve the functioning of education institutions but will also aid in planning future strategies based on the data collected.



“Work on training all parent teacher committees (PTC) across the province will begin soon in order to streamline the affairs of education institutions from the grass-root level,” the press release stated.

Furthermore, preparations to train teachers of primary schools to enable them to teach students in the English language from first grade onwards are also complete. This will bring public sector schools at par with private schools, it read.

This was discussed in a meeting of the working group on education held in Pakhtunkhwa House, Islamabad.

Arrangements for the IMU along with various other reforms in the education department were also the topic of discussion.

Education Secretary Abdul Latif chaired the meeting, while representatives of the European Union, USAID, GIZ, AusAID and K-P education department were in attendance.

Senior educationist Jamaluddin briefed the meeting regarding the scheme for training PTCs, while representatives of a private consultant group, Abacus, briefed the participants about their experience in Punjab.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2013.