PESHAWAR: Rules relaxed in low literacy districts - Appointment of women in primary schools
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Feb 22: The NWFP government has relaxed rules for the appointment of female teachers in three underdeveloped districts of the province
, to encourage applicants and promote girls education in areas with a low literacy rate, said official sources.
"Female candidates having studied up to 8th grade would also be eligible as primary school teachers in Kohistan, Hangu and Shangla districts," said a well placed official source.
The move to announce special relief for female candidates in the three districts, said the sources, had been necessitated in view of the low literacy rate in that area, and particularly, the low female literacy rate.
As per the rules laid down for inducting primary school teachers in NWFP, candidates having qualifications upto Matriculation with a primary teacher certificate are also eligible to apply for the posts of female teachers. However, those holding FA qualifications with a primary teacher's certificate would be given preference over those with only a Matric qualification.
"But in the cases of Kohistan, Hangu and Shangla female candidates having studied upto 8th grade would be eligible to apply and get recruited as primary school teachers," said the source.
The provincial government is in the process of recruiting some 5,500 primary school teachers to pursue its policy of bringing down the students-teacher ratio from the current level of 40:1 to 30:1 in phases.
Of the total number of teachers to be appointed during the current financial year, 75 percent would be recruited on the basis of merit lists to be prepared at the union council level, meaning thereby that candidates, in case of their appointment, would be posted in the union council of their residence.
In this way, said the sources, relaxing the appointment rules in Kohistan, Shangla and Hangu districts was deemed necessary because in several of the unions councils there might not be one girl having passed Matric or studied up to that level.
Kohistan, Hangu and Shangla has a female literacy rate much less than other districts of the province. According to a Unicef survey, out of the 24 districts in NWFP Kohistan ranked 24th with a literacy rate of 14 per cent and female literacy rate of only two per cent.
Similarly, Shangla ranked 20th with over all adult literacy rate of 29 per cent and female literacy rate of six per cent. Whereas, Hangu district ranked 14th with adult literacy rate of 37 per cent and female literacy rate of 14 per cent.
Apart from encouraging females to join teaching services, the move, above all, was meant to promote female education in these areas still governed by strong local customs and norms and where girls are admitted only to those schools where there are female teachers.
"Such incentives are crucial to promote female education in areas involving the lowest net primary enrolment of girls," said a source. While Kohistan has a net primary enrolment rate of 16 per cent, in terms of girls' net primary enrolment rate it appears to be at the bottom when compared with other districts.
It has 10 per cent net primary enrolment rate of girls in comparison with 13 per cent in the case of Shangla and 22 per cent in the case of Hangu district.
