PESHAWAR, Oct 17: Over Rs247 million have been earmarked for the Parents-Teachers Associations (PTAs) formed in more than 20,000 public sector primary schools of the NWFP to carry out development works during the 2003-4 financial year, official sources said.
The funds earmarked, according to officials of the provincial literacy and schools department, for the PTAs in the current financial year’s budget was Rs62 million more than the amount allocated in the 2002-3 financial year and Rs69 million more than the funds they could actually utilize in the last financial year.
The phenomenon of setting up the PTAs in the public sector primary schools was introduced in the NWFP where in a span of not more than two years the associations have been formed in more than 20,460 primary schools — in fulfilment of requirements by international donor agencies.
“Following the success of the PTAs at the primary level, the government is now in the process of setting up such entities at the secondary schools level,” said one of the senior officers of the literacy and schools department.
There are some 1,500 more provincial public sector primary schools where the PTAs have yet to be formed out of a total of 21,992 provincial public sector primary schools in the NWFP.
In line with its agreement with the World Bank, the provincial government is required to set up the PTAs in all the primary schools and make them functional to serve the purpose for which the entities had been conceived.
“Though in some of the cases the PTAs have made a big difference as far as improvement of teachers’ attendance particularly in rural areas, still the authorities concerned are required to do a lot to take maximum benefit of the newly set up associations,” said the official.
The PTAs — involving representatives of parents, notables of the area concerned, one of the retired officers of a provincial government in the area and headmaster or headmistress of the primary school concerned — had been necessitated with the primary objective to check teachers’ attendance and ensure provision of basic facilities to the primary schools.
Out of the first tranche of Rs5.7 billion provided to the NWFP by the World Bank under its structural adjustment credit facility in the 2002-3 financial year, a hefty amount of Rs1 billion had been spent for the improvement of the provincial education sector of which major investment was made in the girls education.
Out of the total funds released to the education sector under the 2002-3 financial year’s annual development programme more than 80 per cent was utilized for the improvement of basic facilities for girls schools.
Large number of small schemes involving construction of additional class rooms, boundary walls, latrines, etc. were executed under the World Bank funded programme in the 2002-3 financial year.
Funds earmarked under the current financial year’s education sector budget for the PTAs would be spent on small development schemes.
Major chunk of the funds, added the official, had already been released by the NWFP finance department to the literacy and schools department which would distribute it among the district governments on need basis.
