PESHAWAR, Aug 11: Members of the district council have expressed concern over the poor conditions of public sector schools and asked the government to resolve the problem of shortage of teaching and non-teaching staff.

The council, which met on Friday with its convener Razaullah Khan in the chair, also expressed concern over political interference in schools and urged the government to put an end to this practice.

Earlier, chairpersons of the education committees (male and female), Mohammad Ishraq Khan and Tahira Bukhari, presented their reports before the house that called for provision of necessary equipments to the schools. The reports said that the teachers working in rural and urban areas were being given different facilities, which should be brought to uniformity to put an end to discrimination.

The reports also took exception to irresponsible attitude of the EDOs (Education) and asked the government to issue directives to EDOs to properly implement the decisions of the council and provide lists of newly-appointed teachers and newly-admitted students to the council. It was suggested in the reports that their copies should be provided to all the schools in Peshawar district so the members of council do not face problems while inspecting them.

Ishraq Khan asked the members to keep vigil on the performance of the schools in their respective areas. He said an educational seminar of all principals of schools had been planned to listen to their problems and solve them accordingly.

He said conditions of school buildings in rural areas had been very bad and required immediate attention of the government.

The reports said there should be a probe into the poor conditions of schools and bad results of public sector schools in annual examinations. They asked for more funds and facilities to the educational committees.

Members of the council drew the attention of the chair toward vacant posts of teachers and said that there should be a workable system to fill up these posts. Some of the schools, they pointed out, had no electricity.

They said in some schools students were forced to pay for electricity bills because the EDOs released money for electricity bills every three months.