PHC rejects KP govt’s report on SSC exams

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday rejected the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s report about secondary school certificate (SSC) examinations, claiming that 77 percent government schools showed 100 percent results in the examinations.

A division bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Ijaz Anwar observed that the court had sought a detailed report about SSC examinations but only percentage was given in the report.

However, the bench directed the district education officers of all the districts across the province to submit comprehensive reports of their respective districts about the results and also about shortage of teachers in the schools before the next hearing.

Earlier, Additional Secretary Secondary and Elementary Education Department Arshad Khan appeared in the court and submitted the report.

In previous hearing, the court had directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Department to file a report on the alleged poor performance of the government’s educational institutions in the recent SSC examinations in the province by and large and the government’s steps for increasing enrolment of out-of-school children.

The court had also asked the government if the relevant department had taken any action against the people responsible for poor performance at the government schools.

The bench observed that it was unfortunate that the improvement in the education sector, as claimed by the government, was not visible despite the spending of billions of rupees during the last couple of years.

In the report submitted in the high court, it was revealed that the government had initiated action against the principals of the government schools for poor performance of students in the schools.

In this regard, it said, the show-cause notices had been issued to 184 principles of government schools and they were asked to explain the poor performance of the schools in the metric examinations.

In the report, 89 percent private schools had secured 100 percent results in the SSC examinations, he added.

The government’s report stated that six percent of the government schools were without boundary walls; 28 per cent schools were without electricity; 19 percent were without potable water and seven percent without washrooms.

It was stated that 20 percent children including Afghan kids were out of schools- one million girls and over 0.5 million boys.

It was stated in the report that some children did not go to schools due to financial constraints of their families and about 24 percent parents did not want to admit their children in schools but sent them for work.