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July 25, 2008	Friday	Rajab 21, 1429

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PESHAWAR, July 24: The Awami National Party-led provincial government has decided to start evening classes in schools across NWFP.

NWFP Minister for Education Sardar Hussain Babak during a press briefing here on Thursday said that bringing reforms in the education sector was part of the ANP manifesto. “In an effort to bring a positive change within the meagre resources the provincial government decided to start evening classes in all the schools to provide education to more children,” he added.

He said that the province was short of primary schools and 65 per cent of the girls in the province were out of school. Talking about the sorry state of the education sector in NWFP, the minister said that the provincial education department was short of 22,000 schools. He said the province needed Rs55 billion for the purpose and was looking for financial assistance from the international donor agencies.

“Unfortunately, the image of the province portrayed by the media scares away the donors and foreign investors,” he said. He said that provincial government had also decided to make use of network of mosques and start ‘Maktab School’ in every mosque of the province. In these Maktab schools children aged five who are not able to go to far-off government schools will get education.

“Primary School Teachers will be appointed in Maktab Schools to teach the same syllabus to children, which is being taught in the government schools,” the minister said, adding that it would also create employment opportunities.

He said that they wanted to change out-dated techniques of teaching. “The students should be allowed to express themselves through activity-based learning. The education department would start group discussions and literary activities in schools,” Mr Babak said.

Criticising the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government in NWFP, the minister said that the present government had decided to switch back to old ‘militia’ uniform and academic session.

He said that white uniform was not economical as students mostly coming from poor families could not afford to wash the uniform every other day. “The change of session also created problems so we are reverting to the old academic session,” he added.

To a query about torching of girl schools in Swat, the minister said that the situation was ‘sad’ and an attempt to push Pakhtun back into age of ignorance. He informed that portions of the damaged school buildings would be repaired. He said that about 56 schools in Swat district and nine in Lower and Upper Dir districts were either attacked or damaged.

He said that the government had also placed a complete ban on postings and transfer of teaching staff in the province. He said that his government had set up clear-cut criteria for the appointment of teachers and would not tolerate political interference in such matters.

The minister expressed concern over the high number of out of school children which he opined resulted in creating a bad image of ‘Pakhtun’ as an ignorant and backward people.

He said that backwardness was resulting extremism. He urged international donor agencies to invest in education sector of NWFP.