PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet in its last meeting on Tuesday approved Rs180 million as supplementary budget for bullet-proofing of 20 vehicles for 20 sensitive districts of the province.
Speaking about the cabinet decisions in a press conference after attending the provincial cabinet meeting here, Minister for Education Shahram Tarakai said the provincial cabinet in its 86th meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Mahmud Khan, took the much-awaited decision on upgrade of different cadres of schoolteachers.
Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Information Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif also accompanied him.
Shahram said the decision was a remarkable one and it would make a great contribution towards promotion of education in the province. He said around 130,000 teachers would benefit from the decision, which would be practically enforced in July this year.
When the minister was reminded about the financial impact of the decision and apparent political gimmick of the provincial government, Shahram said that they made great investment in education during their rule and would form the next government too.
The minister said the cabinet approved an upgrade of the posts of Secondary School Teachers (SST) and Primary School Teachers (PST) from BPS-16 to BPS-17 and from BPS-12 to BPS-14 respectively with effect from the next financial year. The upgrade of these posts, which was a long-standing demand of the teacher community, will benefit as many as 21,800 SSTs and 51,000 PSTs in the province. Likewise, the posts of Certified Teachers (CT), Drawing Master (DM), AT and Physical Education Teacher (PET) have also been upgraded from BPS-15 to BPS-16 to fulfil their demand for upgraded scales.
Similarly, a four-tier formula was also approved for the teachers to pave the way for promotion of 13,888 teachers working in various scales ranging from BPS-17 to BPS-20, the ministers added. They said the cabinet had also approved one-time cash grant of Rs50 million and Rs20 million for Peshawar Press Club and Swat Press Club respectively. Similarly, a grant of Rs5 million was approved for the Nowshera Press Club.
