Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Emphasising on the need of quality education for physically challenged children, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has decided to open special education complexes at divisional level.

An official from the Social Welfare Department told Daily Times that said Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has issued directives to the department to prepare PC-1 for the establishment of the divisional level educational complexes for physically challenged children.

“The department has received summary from the chief minister while planning and development section of the Social Welfare Department would give final touches to the PC-1 after the Eid holidays,” the official added.

He said the required money for the proposed complexes would be allocated from the Chief Minister’s Special Fund, adding that the project has been launched across the province to provide special education up to eight grades in the proposed complexes.

The official said that physically challenged children, including deaf and dumb, visually impaired and physically handicapped children, would get education in a cordial environment with special refresher courses in these complexes. The complexes would be upgraded as per the need of hour from grade-eight to higher level of education, he added.

“When the students would pass the eighth grade from the proposed complexes, the status of the complexes would automatically be upgraded to higher studies and the students at the institutions would be provided the opportunity of higher education. The complex for the special education would consist of separate section for girls and boys,” he said.

The Social Welfare Department’s data postulates that there are 39 primary schools in KP for physically challenged children where more than 3,300 students are enrolled. Most of the time physically challenged students, after completion primary education, abandon further admission due to unavailability of high education institutions in their respective region. However, the government had established two high education institutes for physical challenged children; one in Peshawar and other in Kohat, but the students of other districts of the province do not often get admission in these institutes owning to relatively longer distance from their hometowns.

The official said that divisional educational complexes for the physically challenged children would provide golden opportunities to those students who intend to continue their education after primary education. “The education complexes for the physically challenging children would be built on modern lines, which would cater all kind of facilities such as wheelchairs, IT laboratories, and modern equipments for imparting lessons in the classrooms,” the official added.