Missing facilities to be provided at schools in tribal districts: Bangash

Nabi Jan Orakzai

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Department (ESED) says Rs.36 billion fund has been allocated for schools and educational activities in tribal districts under the light of the Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) report. Steps are also being taken to open the closed schools and reduce absenteeism by teachers.

In an interview with TNN, Adviser to Chief Minister on Elementary and Secondary Education Department Ziaullah Bangash said the IMU is basically our frontline team which fights for improving education standards. He said the IMU visited almost 98 percent schools of tribal districts and prepared its report on facilities and performance.

“On the basis of that report, the KP government allocated funds for schools and education in merged districts. We have allocated a grant for providing missing facilities in schools like boundary walls, electricity, toilets or water etc,” he said.

The CM’s adviser said that under the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan and KP Chief Minister Mehmood Khan, the ESED devised comprehensive planning for promotion of education in tribal districts.

“Under the planning, we allocated Rs.22 billon for development and reconstruction of schools in merged districts. We will appoint 5,000 new teachers in tribal districts and missing facilities will be provided in schools,” Mr Bangash said.

The CM’s adviser said the development budget of the education sector for tribal districts this year is four-times higher than the previous year.

“If the Rs.22 billion fund is divided equally on seven tribal districts then each district gets over Rs.3 billion only in the head of development budget. The fund will cover reconstruction of damaged schools as well as news schools,” he said.

Mr Bangash said the ESED has issued show-cause notices to all absent teachers to come for their duties.

“We will appoint new teachers in place of absent teachers if they did not come for their duties despite show-cause notice. We have also allocated monthly stippled for students who were earlier not coming to schools,” he said.

The adviser said the government will provide Rs.1,000 stipend to each student per month to encourage their families to send them to schools regularly.