Education quality improvement project planned for merged districts

PESHAWAR: The Elementary & Secondary Education Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will pilot the “rapid enrolment, quality improvement and school governance reform project” in selected districts of the merged areas.

The project updates were highlighted by the Secretary Elementary & Secondary Education Department, Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, at the departmental workshop organised to finalise the design of the education reforms project. According to the secretary, the project initiatives would be aimed at turning school administrators into education innovators to contribute to the enrolment of the children in schools within the pilot districts of the merged areas. The participating teachers in the primary schools would be expected to independently undertake decisions and address local issues which affect school enrolment and the quality of education.

Rs50 million have been allocated for the implementation of this project under the Accelerated Implementation Programme (AIP) 2020-21. Under the project, the headteachers from a few a hundred schools in the target districts would be provided with a combination of training opportunities, small discretionary funds and digital nudges for better planning so that they are able to better deliver on educational outcomes. The project initiatives have been designed to empower the school teachers who are delivering education services at the frontline rather than the district education officials.

Under the project, the school teachers will be empowered to set learning goals and targets in consultation and agreement with the district and provincial education authorities. The project will target parents of prospective students through text messaging nudges and door-to-door outreach campaigns. The pilot intervention will generate the evidence of the impact of the project for scaling up to more schools. While the Secretary Elementary & Secondary Education led the workshop proceedings, senior representatives from the department including the chief planning officer, director elementary & secondary education, senior planning officers, director Curriculum & Teacher Education, director Provincial Institute for Teacher’s Education, additional director newly merged districts and all district education officers from the merged areas were present as well.

The workshop participants agreed that the capacity building of headteachers and the provision of small discretionary funds would ensure that local context-specific issues are addressed in a quick and efficient manner. The secretary in his concluding remarks stated that teachers in the merged areas were had added importance as their teachings and actions influenced the future generation of the region.