PESHAWAR: Despite spending Rs20 billion on providing missing facilities to state-run schools and launching enrolment campaign twice a year by the provincial government, the overall enrolment of boys has decreased in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The enrolment of boys has come down from 2,691,754 to 2,676,156, according to the Annual Statistical Report 2015-16 released by elementary and secondary education department. However, the enrolment of girl students has increased to 1,543,633 from 1,480,274.

Officials of education department say that provincial government is spending an average of Rs2,330 per month on each student enrolled in the state-run schools.

Official says 0.2 million students to be enrolled in coming academic session

In the current fiscal year, the government has allocated Rs118 billion for only elementary and secondary education department, which is almost one fourth of the total provincial budget. Of the total budget for elementary and secondary education department, Rs104 billion is allocated for salary and non-salary expenditures and Rs15.2 billion is development budget.

At primary level, enrolment of boys has decreased in 12 districts of the province and in three other districts enrolment has neither increased nor decreased while it has increased in 10 districts.

The report shows one per cent decrease in overall enrolment of boys at primary level as the number has reduced from 1,936,247 to 1,919,519.

The enrolment of girls has increased in 23 districts at primary schools while it has decreased in three districts. Five per cent increase has witnessed in the enrolment of girls in primary schools as it has risen to 1,118,086 from 1,065,393.

The districts where enrolment of boys has decreased are Haripur with 7 per cent, Bunner and Kohistatn each with six per cent, Swat with five per cent, Abbottabad, Kohat, Tank, Hangu each four per cent, Bannu with two per cent, Chitral two perc cent and Charsadda and Lakki Marwat each one per cent.

In Peshawar, Swabi and Dir Upper, the enrolment of boys at primary level has neither increased nor decreased.

The report presents a deplorable condition of middle schools in terms of enrolment as compared to the previous year.

The number of students in middle schools in 23 districts has decreased while it has increased only in two districts of the province. The total number of enrolled boys has reduced to 132,514 from 143,632, which is eight per cent decrease.

Similarly, the number of girl students in middle schools has decreased in 17 districts while it has increased in eight districts. The enrolled girls in middle schools have decreased from 82,855 to 78,799, which is a decreased of five per cent.

Two per cent decrease has been recorded in the number of boy students in government high schools across the province. The enrolment of boys has decreased in 14 districts while it has slightly increased in 10 districts and it has remained unchanged in one district.

Enrolment in girl schools has increased in 15 districts and it has decreased in seven districts while the enrolment has neither increased nor decreased in two districts. The data shows one cent increase in enrolment of girls in high schools across the province.

The enrolment of boys in government higher secondary schools has increased in 21 districts and decreased in two districts while it has remained unchanged in two districts of the province.

Similarly, enrolment of girls has increased in 15 districts and decreased in three while there is no government higher secondary school in six districts including Chitral, Kohistan, Tank, Battagram and Torghar.

Qaiser Alam Khan, special secretary of elementary and secondary education department, when contacted, said that girls’ enrolment significantly increased in government schools. He claimed that boys’ enrolment had not decreased rather increased.

When his attention was drawn towards his department’s report that showed decrease in enrolment of boys, he said that the report transparent as overlapping mentioned in the previous reports was removed.

“We will enrol another 0.2 million students in the coming academic session as the department has planned to launch an extensive awareness campaign in April,” he said.

Najiullah Khattak, spokesperson for the department, cited three reasons for decrease in enrolment of boys and increase in enrolment of girls. “A large number of Afghan students were enrolled in the government schools. They quit the schools with recent repatriation of their families,” he said.

According to him, second reason is duplication of data in the previous reports, which has now removed to a large extent due to which the number of boys has reduced.

Mr Khattak said that 25 per cent of the girl students were enrolled in the boys’ schools and in the previous reports they were shown as boys instead of girls. “Now they are bifurcated that’s why the number of boys has decreased and that of girls has increased,” he added.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2017