KP govt to launch campaign for enhancing literacy rate

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Friday approved a campaign to enhance the literacy rate in the province, particularly in merged districts.

The drive titled “Ilm Tolo Da Para” was okayed in a meeting of the Provincial Task Force on merged districts chaired by Caretaker Chief Minister Syed Arshad Hussain Shah.Besides provincial ministers Dr Qasim Jan, Dr. Aamir Abdullah, Mian Feroz Jamal Shah Kakakhel, Corps Commander Peshawar Lt- Gen Hassan Azhar Hayat and other civil and military officials attended the meeting.

A handout said initially, the campaign would be launched in merged districts, and would be extended to those settled districts having low literacy rate.Under the campaign, a comprehensive plan has been chalked out for enrolling out-of-school children of merged areas in schools.

Moreover, under the campaign, children belonging to merged districts with age groups of five to 16 would be specifically targeted for enrolment.The participants decided to upgrade the public sector schools on a need basis in merged districts while teachers belonging to merged districts but posted in other districts would also be repatriated to the districts of their domiciles.

It was decided that an inquiry would be conducted for learning about the missing facilities in public schools while action would be taken against the contractor in case of non-construction of facilities mentioned in the PC 1 of any school.

A committee would be constituted for aligning the academic curriculum with market needs and requirements of the modern era.The participants were informed that the campaign had been designed jointly by the Pak Army and Education Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was disclosed that 55 per cent — 1000,000 — children are out of schools in the merged districts adding only 44 per cent — around 8,00000 children were enrolled in the schools in merged areas.

It was informed that at present, 74 pc girls were out of schools in those districts.Under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Literacy Campaign, initiatives would also be taken to ensure availability of teaching staff and missing facilities in the government schools.

Apart from this, rationalization of schools in merged districts would be carried out and all the surplus schools would be converted into technical and vocational centres.Steps would be taken to identify the ghost schools and teachers in those districts. As an effort to increase literacy rate in merged areas, special incentives would be given to the teachers and students.

The plan includes the initiatives for introducing formal education in religious seminaries whereas cooperation would be sought from ulema, elected public representatives, civil society and all other stakeholders in order to make this literacy campaign successful.

Addressing the participants, the caretaker chief minister hoped the literacy campaign would prove to be a milestone towards increasing literacy rate in the province, particularly the merged districts.He praised Pak Army for the role in devising this campaign.