LAHORE: The Department for International Development (DFID) is funding some 105 million pounds for the construction of 23,000 new classrooms in schools in Punjab.

The new classrooms will address the problem of over-crowded classrooms and multi-grade teaching.

This was stated by Punjab school education department deputy secretary Qaiser Rasheed while speaking at the national launch ceremony of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey 2014 at a local hotel on Saturday.

This fifth consecutive year survey will track learning and education of 5-16 years of age children for public debate and action. The survey will be conducted by trained 10,000 volunteers covering 145 rural and 22 urban districts of Pakistan.

Mr Rasheed said the ASER data was strengthening the school education department in taking informed decisions.

He said the department had last year spent around Rs14 billion on the provision of missing facilities, adding that this year more than half of Rs15.7 billion development budget had been released.

He said the government had plans to open at least 500 new schools in public-private partnership mode in different areas in the province.

He said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had also directed the department to fill the remaining 21,000 vacant teaching posts at the earliest.

The deputy secretary said the enrolment of out-of-school children in Punjab was a big challenge and the much bigger challenge was to ensure imparting of quality education in schools.

He said the department was enhancing the non-salary budget to improve the environment in schools.

He said the government would also provide solar panels within two months to those schools having no electricity in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts.

Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi Director Programmes Dr Baela Raza Jamil said the largest citizen-led household based nationwide ASER survey 2014 aimed at filling a gap in the learning outcomes and provide reliable estimates on the schooling status of children aged 5-16 years residing in rural districts of Pakistan.

Since 2008, she said, the ASER findings were influencing provincial sector planning in the post 18th Amendment phase and also being referenced for policies, planning, strategies and the legislation on the right to education and learning as per article 25-A .

She said the ASER cycle would go in the field from September onwards and that the fifth consecutive year survey would serve as a milestone for providing profound insights on key issues in order to improve educational governance.

She also stressed that there should be learning assessment forums in the country to generate debate on students’ learning outcomes.

Dr Baela also announced a 100-day campaign to sensitize governments and masses about the schools under threat due to terrorism, political turmoil and other reasons.

Directorate of Staff Development’s Zulfiqar Ali Saqib said the directorate was imparting training to schoolteachers on a regular basis.

He said the ASER survey reports were helping the directorate to identify gaps and address them.

Open Society Foundations’ programme officer Nargis Sultana said the ASER national movement would help make politicians accountable. Former Punjab DPI Jamil Najam also spoke.

Published in Dawn, August 31th, 2014