CHITRAL, March 23: Around 138 posts of the high school teachers are lying vacant, while 26 high schools are being run without headmasters in Chitral District.

Sources at the district education office said 24 high schools lacked classes for science group students, despite having science laboratories.

Five of the schools were being run with only two or three teachers against the required 11 teachers, he added.

In the meanwhile, the executive district officer for education, Samad Gul, told Dawn that special efforts were being made to improve the standard of education in the district.

The Government High School Chitral was being made a model school to provide high-quality education to those poor students who could not afford the expenses of private schools. Eight most sophisticated science laboratories were being set up in two girls and six boys high schools, for which separate buildings had been completed, he added.

The EDO also said 46 community-based primary schools were being established in the district, to bring more children under enrolment.

Mr Gul said the vacant posts would be filled shortly as per criterion provided in the devolution plan.

For mass literacy, he said, initially 19 centres would be opened, where technical training would also be imparted to adults to make them self-reliant.

Computer classes would be started in two schools from the forthcoming academic session, which would extended to the whole district later.

Mr Gul said the government of the North West Frontier Province had approved to open a mathematics resource centre, where subject specialists would be trained.

Replying to a question, he said that as many as 619 teachers in different cadres had been imparted training for teaching on modern lines, with the active support of the Aga Khan Education Service.