Education ‘top priority’ of KP government, says CM Gandapur

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur announces education as “top priority” for his government in the upcoming budget, according to state-run Radio Pakistan.

“We will allocate more resources toward the education sector,” Gandapur vows.

“Presiding over a meeting in Peshawar, he directed measures to enhance teachers’ capacity, ensure 100 per cent merit in new recruitments, and establish schools in rented buildings in areas where they are urgently needed,” the report said.

It was decided in the meeting that several initiatives will be taken to enhance the enrollment of the students in the Schools and a budget will be allocated for these initiatives.

“Gandapur expressed concern that in some districts, the rate of out-of-school children remains alarming, and the declaration of an education emergency is a necessary step to reduce this number and improve enrollment rates,”

During the previous two decades, students have gotten free books from the provincial government at the beginning of the school year in April. Two years ago, the government chose to supply just half of the needed books since the expenditures exceeded Rs10 billion, instructing school administrators to collect old books from pupils promoted to the next grade and fulfill the remaining book needs.

This year, however, a difficult scenario has evolved in schools, since the textbook board claims to have printed all of the volumes ordered by the education department, despite student and teacher complaints about a book scarcity.

The chief minister’s concerns follow in the wake of the unexpected textbook shortage in the province which has disrupted classes, high dropout rates, and Pakistan’s “low” ranking in the District Education Performance Index Report 2020-23.