Staff Reporter
Peshawar
The Khyber Pakthunkhwa Government has introduced an inclusive policy for starting of second shift in public sector schools to bring about two million street children under education next from upcoming academic year. As per the new policy, teachers of the same Government school would be given preference for teaching of students in second shift, otherwise, services of teachers of the nearby Govt schools would be hired for this purpose.
KP Education Department official told APP on Wednesday that a comprehensive policy have been prepared after consultation with all stakeholders and a high-level committee under chairmanship of Minister for Education has been constituted for speedy implementation of the policy. “The second shift would be started on need basis in all districts of Khyber Pakthunkhwa where priorities would be given to teachers of the same school to teach students. In case of shortage, teachers of nearby schools would be hired for the said services.
The policy has been devised to bring about two million street children under schools net,” he said. He said that the new policy would immensely help discourage child labour in big cities especially Peshawar, Mardan, Swat, Bannu, DI Khan, Abbottabad, Manshera and others districts. The policy is continuation of KP Government’s initiative “Ghar Aya Ustad” (teacher came home) aimed to improve literacy rate. He mentioned that In case of non availability of a government school in nearby areas, private schools is being engaged for enrollment of students under voucher system for which about Rs 800 per month is being provided by government as tuition fee and others education expenses.
Around 30,000 students were currently being benefited from this key voucher program and efforts would be made to provide this facility to more enrolled poor children especially in less developed districts of KP and merged tribal districts, he added. Chief Minister Khyber Pakthunkhwa, Mahmood Khan has recently approved starting of second shift in the government schools while presiding over a high-level meeting of Elementary and Secondary Education KP. The official said federal government has started consultation with all federating units regarding developing a single national curriculum (SNC) for the entire country and is likely to be enforced from next academic year 2021-22. National Curriculum Council (NCC), Ministry of Federal Education & Professional Training Islamabad is developing SNC in consultation with Education departments of all provinces.
