MANSEHRA: The sub-divisional education officer of Kohistan Tanveer Khan has said that about 90 per cent teachers in the district are untrained and less educated, which is the main cause of education mess in this backward district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“Our 90 per cent teachers are untrained and don’t meet the qualifications required for the job,” he said while speaking at a seminar organised by Alif Ailaan at Siam college in Dasu on Friday.

The seminar titled ‘educational budget review’ was addressed by representatives of the education department, NGOs and civil society.

Mr Khan said that the Unesco had proposed for Pakistan to spend 4 per cent of the GDP, but whatever the KP government would earmark for education in the coming budget would determine the future of education in the province.

“The KP government has also to bear an extra burden of Rs2.6 billion on security of educational institutions in the province this year,” he said, adding that the government had been spending about Rs1 billion annually on the salaries and offices of the education department in Kohistan alone.

Speaking on the occasion, coordinator of Alif Ailaan Hafizur Rehman said that the government had been spending a reasonable chunk of its budget on education, but it still needed to be increased. However, he said that corruption was the main hurdle to promotion of quality education in the province.

“The funds meant for promotion of quality education and spent through parent-teacher councils are being embezzled in Kohistan and resultantly quality of education is compromised,” Mr Rehman said. He claimed that even watchmen of schools were selected chairman of the parent-teacher councils in the district.

He said that currently 15 per cent educational institutions were running on papers only, while their teachers had been receiving salaries regularly. Assistant education officer, Kohistan, Noor Mohammad said that the government would spend Rs8 million on the reconstruction of destroyed schools and other facilities in district.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2015

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