TAXILA: The Punjab School Education Department has decided to hand over 53 different government schools of Attock district to Punjab Education Foundation (PEF), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), under public school support programme (PSSP), sources in education department told Dawn on Monday.

The sources said two schools in tehsil Attock, four in tehsil Hassanabdal, 17 in tehsil Jand, seven in tehsil Hazro, 11 in tehsil Pindigheb and nine schools in tehsil Fatehjang had been identified to be handed over to the NGO.

The PEF is working to encourage and promote education on non-commercial and non-profit basis and particularly provide education to the poor through public private partnership.

The sources said that the step would improve the condition of the government schools where paucity of staff and facilities discouraged children’s enrolment.

An official of the education department on condition of anonymity said the office-bearers of the teachers’ unions had expressed their resentment but the district education department had given a green signal to the NGO to take charge of these schools from next month.

When contacted, Chief executive Officer, district education Authority Attock, Shakoor Anjum said these schools wer being handed over to the PEF to overcome the shortage of teachers, improve facilities and discourage alarmingly decreasing dropout rate.

He was confident the move would help improve results of the schools.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2017