PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has decided to confer Best Teacher and School Award under the Teacher Incentive Programme 2015-16. The officials of the education department say the number of the schools and teachers have been doubled than the previous year. The door of goodwill for the teacher’s community in the province was opened in 2014 when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government took the novel initiative of awarding the best teachers of the province. Under, this programme the KP government has awarded 120 schools teachers in 2014-15 and Rs 50 million have been distributed amongst the best teachers and principals of government schools across the province. According to KP Elementary and Secondary Education Department data, unlike the previous year the numbers of the selected teachers, schools and allocation of funds for the project has been doubled in the 2015-16 budget. Elementary and Secondary Education Department officials told Daily Times that the aim of the government’s step was to encourage the teachers and give recognition to their hard work while imparting education to children in the classrooms. This time 240 best government schools including boys and girls have been nominated for the awards and Rs 110 million have been allocated in the budget 2016-17 for the purpose. According to documents available with Daily Times Rs 50, 000 would be awarded to the best teacher and Rs 100, 000 would be given to the best head teacher on their performance basis. As per collective performance of the educational institutes a total of Rs 4, 50,000 would also be distributed among seven teachers and a head teacher of the best performance school. The mechanism for the purpose of selection of best teacher and best school would be carried out with the help of the departmental indicators. In the first process the indicators were noted and the schools were selected and secondly the teachers and head teachers were selected. The five main principal indicators set by the Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) with outmost transparency and computerised system helped so the chances of human errors were eliminated. According to the documents the five indicators for selection set by KP IMU include the school enrollment rate (individual school with last year’s comparison). The third indicator is based on the teacher’s attendance rate and decreased absenteeism, the fourth one is 100 per cent participation rate of the students in Secondary School Certificate examination (9th and 10th) grade and the last indicator is the overall SSC results of the schools. The district wise nominated schools for awards comprised Bannu 30 (17 girls and 13 boys schools), Karak 15 schools (8 boys and 7 girls), Lower Dir 20(10 boys and 10 girls), Hangu 5 (2 boys and 3 girls), Bunner 15(9 boys and 6 girls), Peshawar 5 (1 boys and 4 girls), Haripur 5 (3girls and 2 boys), Abbotaabad 5 boys, Manshera 8 (5 boys and 3 girls), Malakand 15 (9 girls and 6 boys), Swat 20 (11girls and 9 boys), Lakki Marwat 15 (7 girls and 8 boys), Shangla 5 (2 girls and 3 boys), Charsadda 7 (5 girls and 2 boys), Mardan 18 (10 girls and 8 boys), Kohat 6 ( 3 girls and 3 boys), Swabi 5 (2 boys and 3 girls), Chitral 21 (10 girls and 11boys), Upper Dir 5 (2 girls and 3 boys), Nowshera 3 (2 girls and 1 boys), D I Khan 7 (3boys and 4 girls) and Kohistan 5 (3boys and 2 girls). Talking to Daily Times the Primary Teacher Association Peshawar District wing representative, Azizullah Khan, lauded the drive of the current government. He said that it was an unprecedented initiative which would ultimately boost the morale of the teacher’s community. He advised further that the government should extend the umbrella of the initiative to the primary level so that the discrimination could be removed. Khan said that last year they had demanded of the KP government to take some encouraging steps for primary education but they replied that it would be based on SSC result performance. He suggested to determine it on class 5th result as it was also declared by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education because this initiative motivated teachers in the real sense. The Development Consultant of ICT in Education, Zunash Abbasi, said while talking to this scribe that the aims of such pragmatic steps by the KP government were meant to boost educational standards and give due respect to the teachers of the province. She said that the teacher’s incentive programme was almost ready and soon the government would award the selected teachers and schools. She added that the move of the present government would inject a kind of confidence and would enhance the performance of the teachers to gear up the youth of the region for future challenges.