Daily Times

The district education department is vigorously pursuing the ongoing enrollment campaign to bring out of school children in public schools across the district with the hope to achieve set target of over 50,000 new admissions.

“The department is following a well-planned strategy being pursued under the ambitious drive of the provincial government titled ‘Parhe ga to barhe ga Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’ (KP would get developed through education),” said District Education Officer (DEO) for Male Musarrat Hussain.

Talking to APP on Wednesday, he said that the campaign would continue till August 31, adding that the set target for new admissions was 40 students per school in over 800 primary schools for males across the district. He said that the teachers were visiting local areas to motivate parents for getting their children enrolled in public schools.

Moreover, posters were being displayed outside all the schools to create awareness among the people. Also, motivational messages were being disseminated to parents through local influential personalities, social media, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation and the local media. The awareness walks were being organized at Tehsil level.

The DEO appealed to the parents to get their children enrolled in public schools as the schools had qualified teaching staff, hired through competitive exams. Even M.Phil and PhD degree holders were teaching in the public sector primary schools, he added.

The government schools were providing all basic facilities with the best infrastructure, he said and added that 50 percent schools were solarized. “The provincial government was providing free books to students of primary to intermediate levels,” he said.

When contacted, Deputy District Education Officer (DDEO) for Female Farhat Yasmin said that the department was making all out efforts to achieve the target of 40 students per schools in around 450 primary schools for females.

She said the provincial government was offering more incentives to female students including stipends for encouragement of parents, especially for those who did not send their daughters to school due to financial constraints.

Farhat said that annual stipend of Rs 1,200 each was being given to female students of class six to eight, while those of class nine and 10 were being given annual stipend of Rs 6,000 each.