PESHAWAR: The provincial elementary and secondary education department on Saturday launched an enrolment drive across the province.
The department has set a target of enrolling 900,000 children in the schools, according to a statement issued here. The drive will continue until end of the month.
In this connection, the department organised a launching ceremony at Government Higher Secondary School No 1, Peshawar.
Adviser to the chief minister on environment Ishtiaq Ahmed Urmar and MPA Shaukat Ali Yousafzai were the chief guests.
Secretary E&SE Dr Shahzad Bangash, special secretary Qaiser Alam and director Rafiq Khattak were also present.
On the occasion, Ishtiaq Urmar said education was the priority area of the provincial government as it had undertaken several initiatives to ensure education to every child.
Mr Yousafzai said education was the most important department of the provincial government because only a better education system could help in poverty reduction. He said the education department had recruited 40,000 teachers through NTS. Secretary education Dr Shahzad Bangash said reforms initiated by the education department had resulted in shifting of 34,000 students from private schools to those of the government.
In Abbottabad, the school enrolment campaign was launched with a ceremony at the press club, where district education officer Qazi Tajamual was the chief guest.
The participants were informed that children between the ages of five and nine years will be enrolled during the month-long drive.
Shahid Aziz, district coordinator of Society for the Protection of the Right of the Child (SPARC), said article 25A was incorporated into the constitution under the 18th amendment, which stated that the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the ages of five to 16 years. He said Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan governments had already passed laws in this regard, but successive governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa failed to do so.
In Karak, walks were organised to create awareness among people about sending their children to school.
A walk was taken out from government primary school official colony, Karak, to the city and back to the school. Earlier, speaking at a ceremony at the school, district naib nazim Maj retired Sajjad Khattak said the trust of parents should be restored in the state-run educational institutions. He said the district government would extend full cooperation to the education department to make the enrolment drive a success.
District education officer Taus Khan Wazir claimed that confidence of parents in government schools was being restored through provision of quality education as well as free admissions and books. He asked teachers to further improve on their performance to attract more children to state-run schools.
Awareness walks were also organised in Takht-i-Nusrati and Banda Daud Shah tehsils by the respective sub-divisional education officers.
Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2017