Focus Group on Education Reforms has expressed concern over the lack of facilities in public sector schools and has demanded improvement in the quality of education in the province.
The consultative meeting of the group was held here in University Town the other day. Besides, Kashif Azam of Jamaat-e-Islami (J.I), Arbab Farooq Ahmad (JUI-F), Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Khalil, Naila Naz of PTI and representatives of civil society and teaching community also attended the meeting.
During the discussion, Sadiq Tareen, consultant of the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS) gave a detailed presentation on district education profile of Peshawar and challenges and how to address them.
In situation analysis, he told the participants were told that 35% (0.2 million) children are still out of schools with transition rate from Class-V to VI is 81%, with gender parity index (GPI) of 0.69 at primary level and 0.58 at secondary level. The government is spending an amount of only Rs.10444.51 per annum at school level.
He said that according to statistics 43% population of the district never attended any school against 57% population of ever attending school. He said that out of the total enrolled children only 46 % complete their primary level education.
The participants were also told that a total of 746 schools including primary, middle, high and higher secondary are required complete or major rehabilitation, 430 lacking electricity, 200 drinking water, 75 lacking latrines and 46 are without boundary wall.
At the end the provincial representative of the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS), Imran Inam thanked the participants for giving their precious proposals regarding improvement in the education system of the province. He said that the institute would continue seeking feedback from the civil society in this regard.
Source: The Frontier Post.
