Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) gives special emphasis to education and even to the education of the special people, hence the government decided to upgrade their education policy.

In a bid to ensure the provision of education to physically disabled persons, provincial government has taken the initiative by changing their schooling code for special persons across the province.

The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Peshawar has announced on Wednesday that the paper timing for the all the special students across the province has been increased to four hours from provisory three hours. Under the new policy, the examination halls for special students will be in their own educational institutions while the exam staff will also comprise experts in their relevant flied.

The new policy for special students was announced at a consultative workshop on special students in Peshawar. The purpose of consultative workshop was to compile syllabus for special students, making exam papers from the syllabus and conducting exams across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The event was chaired by Kamran Bangash, who is a Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Information and Local Government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Moreover, the workshop was also attended by the members of Federal Education Board, education experts, representatives of special education institutes and members of education boards in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Talking to the event, Kamran Bangash in his speech said the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa gives special attention to special persons in all its welfare projects that’s why government special seats have been specified for the special persons in the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project in Peshawar.

He expressed satisfaction over the inactive said that it is a matter of great satisfaction that the Peshawar Board will now follow the pattern of the Federal Board on special syllabus and exam for special students. He mentioned that there are two institutes for special persons in his constituency in which hundreds of students are getting education, Bangash Added.

Talking about the syllabus, Kamran Bangash said the compilation of syllabus will consume time as the government is going towards a goal of a national syllabus under the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan. He further throws light on people with disability said that disrespectful of of the persons with disability should be avoided because the creator has bestowed the special persons with special abilities and intellect and they will definitely play a constructive role in development of the society if they get proper opportunities, Bangash Added.

The special assistant also express that all the offices of local government will be made accessible for special persons by next year and an amendment will be made in by-laws of building codes to make all buildings accessible for special persons, Bangash concluded.

The KP government has established 39 special education institutions for approximately 4000 students in the province to educate, rehabilitate and train deaf and dumb, visually impaired, physically handicapped and mentally retarded children from nursery to middle and secondary level. However, the Social Welfare Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provide them books and bear other expenses for special students, while Peshawar Board provide them other facilities fee of cost.

Recently, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, step ahead making life easy for those who are actually not living very easy lives already. The Elementary and Secondary Education Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has announced a special package for physically handicapped students to provide maximum assistance in their daily life in government schools.

The package includes that there may be no age limit for taking admission in any government school. According to ease their life, 2% of quota reserved for disabled persons for employment in any government elementary and educational institution.

Furthermore, the document said that the provision of ramps and special pathways, toilets and other basic facilities retrofitting in the existing buildings will be made while all the new buildings will be constructed with these provisions in future. Moreover, school uniform will also be provided to disabled/ special student from the poor fund of the government schools once in a year.

The documents available on internet, there are 38 functional government special education centers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in which 23 are primary level, ten are middle level and five are higher secondary level. However, there are 79 percent are male while 21 Percent are female enrolled in the government special education centers. Moreover, the distribution of enrollment by the type of center is 14% in visually handicapped, 57% in deaf and dumb, and 29% in mentally retarded and physically handicapped centers.