PESHAWAR, March 20: The NWFP government has decided to convert 50 high and higher secondary schools of the province to English medium schools.

This decision was taken at a meeting, held here on Wednesday, with NWFP Minister for Education Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani in the chair.

Chief Secretary Shakeel Durrani, education secretaries   Rashida Malik and Arbab Mohammad Shahzad, the director, schools, Hafiz Bahadur Khan, and other officials concerned attended meeting.

The schools in which English is to be introduced as the medium of instruction will be selected from all over the province.

The step is aimed at enabling the students of public schools to get an opportunity to compete with those from the private schools in which all subjects are taught in English.

As the chief secretary put it, the schools would be the “poor man’s cadet colleges” at far less a cost.

This programme will be launched from April 1, and is likely to be completed within two years.

The teachers of these schools will be trained, and there will be a provincial committee or board to monitor their performance.

Each of the schools will have a separate board at the district level to be appointed by the department.

Already, the government has introduced English as the medium of instruction for the subjects of mathematics and science from class VI in all the schools of Kohat and Swat districts under a pilot project.