PESHAWAR: The elementary and secondary education (E&SE) department will soon kick off independent monitoring of government schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with a purpose to streamline their affairs, according to officials.

They said that independent monitoring was being introduced as a three-year project that would cost Rs1.3 billion to be funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), a UK agency.

A separate Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) has already been established for monitoring and data collection of the schools, the officials said, adding that the project would formally start functioning in February or March.

“Not a single employee of the elementary and secondary education department will be part of the new monitoring system,” said a senior official of the education department. He said that keeping the teachers and other staff of the education department away from the new system was necessary for collection of correct data of the schools.

The officials said that 475 monitors, including 303 male and 172 female, had been recruited for monitoring the boys and girls’ schools, respectively.

They said that each monitor would be given a smartphone with general packet radio system (GPRS) installed for immediate transmission of all information concerning the respective schools to the IMU office.

The monitors would collect data about the absent teachers, student-teacher ratio, missing facilities in the schools, enrolment and dropout rate of students, physical environment of schools buildings, etc.

The monitors will also check the distribution of free textbooks, stipends to the girls’ students, utilisation of fund for minor repairs, etc, they said.

Additional Secretary E&SE Department Qaiser Alam Khan, when contacted, told Dawn that absenteeism of teachers in schools would be reduced to a large extent through the new monitoring system. He said that through the GPRS system the IMU would be able to know whether the monitors had visited the assigned schools or not.

“The moment a monitor feeds the data in the smartphone while standing inside a school it will be reflected in the main system at IMU,” Mr Khan said.

The smartphone will have proper format for feeding data, he said, adding that each monitor would visit two to three schools a day.

The additional secretary said that officers of the Provincial Management Service (PMS) and Pakistan Administrative Service, previously known as DMG group, would be appointed as district monitoring officers across the province.

Besides salaries, the male monitors will also be given motorcycles and Rs10,000 monthly fuel allowance, while the female monitors will get fuel allowance of Rs10,000, officials at the IMU told Dawn.

They said that the schools in each district had been divided in different groups of up to 60 institutions each. A single monitor would be responsible for monitoring the schools in a specific group, they said, adding that it would be binding on the monitors to visit each school once a month.

The officials said that the monitors’ groups would be reshuffled every month to avoid their developing permanent contact with the teachers that could jeopardise the work and lead to collection of false information or data. They said that collection and provision of accurate data to the IMU would be ensured.

The education department officials said that a third party evaluation would be made at the end of the three-year project of IMU.

They said that if the project proved successful the department would take over it for its continuation in future.

Opinion

Editorial

Walton land allegations
10 Apr, 2024

Walton land allegations

THE allegations of corruption and violation of rules in the sale of Lahore’s Walton airport land by the Civil...
Charity for change
10 Apr, 2024

Charity for change

PAKISTANIS are large-hearted people who empty their pockets at the slightest hint of another’s need. The Stanford...
Saudi investment
Updated 10 Apr, 2024

Saudi investment

The state has to address barriers that stand in the way of attracting foreign investment, and create a pro-business environment.
World Bank’s advice
Updated 09 Apr, 2024

World Bank’s advice

The next IMF programme will be far tougher than any other Pakistan has embarked on in the past.
Middle East heat
09 Apr, 2024

Middle East heat

America must communicate to Israel that further provocations, particularly targeting sovereign states, will be unacceptable.
Killing fields
09 Apr, 2024

Killing fields

PERHAPS rankled by the daily flood of grisly news — murders, armed robberies, muggings and kidnappings — and...