close
Thursday March 28, 2024

Second shift started in 2,100 schools, KP Assembly told

By Khalid Kheshgi
November 15, 2022

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was informed on Monday that second-shift classes have been started in about 2,100 schools across the province, which would not only enhance the enrollment rate but also lower the burden of the students in the existing schools in morning sessions.

Responding to a question raised about the sustainability of second shift in the government schools, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Shaukat Yusufzai told the House that a summary had also been put to the chief minister for approval for raise in honoraria, stipends or salaries of those teachers who had been recruited for the second shift classes on ad hoc basis.

“The monthly salaries and stipends of teachers on ad hoc basis would be increased up to Rs25,000 per month, who are presently drawing about Rs12,000 on monthly basis,” he said, adding that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had approved a minimum wage of Rs25,000 in the province.

The provincial minister said that educated people were being hired purely on merit from the same locality where the second shifts were started in the schools while the headmaster, head teacher, clerks and class-IV employees of the same schools were given extra payment.

“As the second shift system had improved and established in parts of the province, the interest of parents and students in the second shift has also increased and now highly educated youths have applied for jobs for the second shift,” he said and added that the provincial government had allocated proper fund and budget for the second shift. However, he added that the federal government had stopped funding to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for Sehat Card and the merged districts.

The question was raised by Jamaat-e-Islami woman MPA Humaira Khatoon, asking about the sustainability and release of funds to the second shifts started in many districts of the province.

She also questioned the credibility and hiring of teachers for the second shift in schools as she claimed that no merit was being followed in the appointment of teachers for these schools.The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, chaired by a panel of chairmen MPA Idrees Khattak, also referred a question related to the construction of colleges, higher secondary schools and a university in the newly merged tribal district Bajaur as the mover Nighat Yasmin Orkazai of the PPP insisted that the no proper fund had been approved or released for the educational institutions reflected in the merged districts of the province in the current annual budget.

In her question, Shagufta Malik of the Awami National Party asked the provincial government to take serious and practical steps against the increasing ratio of ice (methamphetamine) consumption and other narcotics in the educational institutions of the province. She said that there were reports that the sale and supply of ice and other narcotics had been increased to universities and colleges in the province.

Provincial Minister for Higher Education Kamran Bangash, while responding to the question, said that all the management of higher institutions including colleges and universities were directed to show zero-tolerance about ice and other narcotics and those who were involved in the consumption, sale and supply of the ice and other drugs must be dealt with an iron hand.

He said that the PTI government had made proper legislation for severe punishment for sale, supply and manufacturing of ice in the province.The session was adjourned till December 5 for lack of quorum.