The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is moving head with a series of actions aimed at improving learning outcomes, standardising assessment practices and strengthening coordination between public and private schools across the province.

The initiatives were discussed and approved in principle during the 25th meeting of the Private Schools Regulatory Authority board, chaired by Elementary and Secondary Education Secretary Muhammad Khalid Khan. The meeting reviewed a number of proposals designed to enhance learning quality, modernise assessment systems and provide support to private schools facing financial and operational challenges.

Addressing the meeting, Khalid Khan said the government remained committed to promoting quality education and creating a learning environment that supports the academic and personal development of students.

“Providing students with a modern, safe and conducive learning environment remains one of the government’s top priorities,” he said. “We are working closely with private educational institutions to introduce reforms that improve teaching standards while ensuring better learning opportunities for students.”

The PSRA board also welcomed the provincial government’s decision to extend the semester system to private schools following its introduction in the public sector. The reform is expected to bring greater uniformity to academic planning and align educational activities with the climate of various regions of the province.

According to Khalid Khan, separate academic calendars have been developed for Summer Zone and Winter Zone schools to ensure that teaching and learning activities take place during periods most suitable for students and teachers.

“The extension of the semester system to private schools aims to establish greater uniformity in academic planning across the province, improve continuity in learning and align educational practices between public and private sectors,” he said.

He said that a semester-based structure distributes academic activities more evenly throughout the year; reducing lengthy interruptions and helping students remain academically engaged.

“The reform is intended to create a more organised academic framework in which curriculum delivery, assessment, co-curricular activities and vacations are planned in a systematic manner, enabling schools to focus on quality learning outcomes,” he added.

The semester system can also improve academic planning by allowing schools to monitor students’s progress more regularly and identify learning gaps before they become serious obstacles to achievement.

The new academic calendar has a common vacation period from July 1 to July 31, during which both Summer Zone and Winter Zone schools will remain closed.

“This window provides an opportunity to organise inter-zonal summer camps involving students from various parts of the province,” Khalid Khan said.

Under the proposal, selected schools in Winter Zone districts may host students from Summer Zone districts in batches for educational, recreational and cultural activities. The camps could include sports competitions, debates, science and innovation projects, arts and cultural programmes, hiking expeditions, environmental awareness activities, leadership training exercises and educational tours.

The initiative is meant to promote social cohesion by bringing together students from diverse geographical, linguistic and cultural backgrounds. “The interaction is expected to promote tolerance, understanding, social cohesion and a stronger sense of provincial identity among young learners,” Khalid Khan said.

Another plan discussed during the meeting was the extension of the school-based assessment (SBA) system to private schools. The assessment framework is already operational in public-sector schools for Grades 3 to 8 and has been designed to measure student learning outcomes in English, mathematics, Urdu and general science.

The system includes a curriculum-aligned digital item bank, automated examination paper generation, standardised answer keys and marking rubrics, electronic report cards and detailed performance analytics.

“At present, there is limited standardised information regarding student learning outcomes in private schools. This makes it difficult to assess educational quality province-wide and limits evidence-based policymaking,” Khalid Khan said.

The meeting was informed that a Digital Item Bank and automated examination paper generation system would also be introduced in private schools. The initiative is expected to enhance transparency, consistency and efficiency in examinations by reducing dependence on individual paper setters and ensuring that assessments remain aligned with curriculum standards.

“The system contributes to transparency by generating examination papers from a large curriculum-aligned question bank, ensuring uniformity in assessment standards and providing standardised answer keys and marking rubrics,” Khan said.

Private schools are also expected to benefit from access to professionally developed assessment resources and learning analytics that can help identify student strengths and weaknesses. Teachers will thus spend less time preparing examination papers and marking schemes, allowing them to focus more on classroom instruction and student support.

Students are likely to benefit from more transparent assessments that measure actual learning outcomes rather than relying primarily on subjective evaluation methods. “Performance data will help teachers and parents identify areas requiring additional support and improvement,” the secretary said.

The availability of province-wide assessment data is expected to strengthen the regulatory role of the PSRA by providing evidence-based information about educational quality and student achievement in private schools.

Khalid Khan emphasised that both the semester system and the SBA would be implemented in consultation with private-school representatives and parents.

“The implementation process will remain consultative and inclusive, ensuring that the concerns and suggestions of private-school stakeholders are duly incorporated,” he said.

Murad Jan, a headmaster at a government primary school, said the semester system had already produced positive results in public schools by reducing the academic burden on students. Speaking to The News on Sunday, he said the division of the syllabus into two manageable segments had made learning easier for children.

“Under the annual examination system, students had to prepare the entire year’s syllabus for one examination. With the semester system, students take mid-term and final examinations, covering only half of the syllabus,” he said.

“This allows them to focus on a smaller portion of the curriculum, improves their understanding of the material and reduces the stress associated with year-end examinations.”

He suggested that separate textbooks be introduced for each semester, particularly for students from nursery to Grade 2.

“By the time the second semester begins, some of thebooks have been worn out,” he said. “Children often find it challenging to keep their textbooks in good condition for a whole year. If separate books were provided for each semester, it will make learning easier for students.”

Nabeela, a mother of four, says her children are enrolled in a private school where the administration has already introduced the semester system. “The results have been positive. My children are able to complete the entire syllabus with less stress,” she said. “The system has made learning easier and more manageable for them.”

In the heart of Mingora, where rapid urban expansion and rising temperatures are straining basic services, authorities are racing to complete a massive surface water supply project aimed at rescuing the city from a worsening drinking water crisis driven by falling groundwater levels and climate change.

For decades, the city has relied almost entirely on underground aquifers accessed through tube-wells. Officials say that system is no longer sustainable as population growth, erratic weather patterns and declining natural recharge continue to push groundwater reserves to critical levels.

Mingora, the economic hub of Swat, has witnessed rapid population growth over the past decade. Residents of hilly suburban areas say that over the last decade groundwater levels have dropped by more than 50 meters in some places.

Swat has a population of 2.3 million. According to open source data, the Water and Sanitation Services Company, serves around 0.37 million people across 25 neighborhood councils, covering 52,581 households. The utility manages more than 30,000 water connections through 69 tube wells, 49 water tanks and a 475-kilometer pipeline network.

The city currently extracts nearly seven million gallons of groundwater a day, far below the estimated demand of 11 million gallons per day. During summer months, shortages become acute, forcing authorities to appeal for reduced water consumption.

Adnan Bacha, a resident of Mingora, says that in summers, residential areas near the mountains are deprived of safe drinking water.

“Tube-wells are typically operated for eight to ten hours a day. However, at the height of summer, they cannot run for even six hours, as they begin to discharge sand along with water,” a senior WSSC Swat says. “This damages pumping machinery and clogs up the pipelines.”

To address the crisis, the provincial government, through the WSSC and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cities Improvement Project is constructing a major water treatment plant, near the Swat River in Khwazakhela. Once operational, the project is expected to supply 30 million gallons of treated water per day to Mingora and surrounding urban areas through an extensive pipeline network.

Officials describe the initiative as one of the largest urban water infrastructure projects undertaken in the region and a critical climate resilience intervention for Swat’s growing population.

“The vision behind the Greater Mingora Water Supply Scheme is not simply to build a treatment plant, but to fundamentally transform the city’s water supply system from a stressed and fragmented arrangement into a modern, sustainable urban water utility,” says Zeeshan Pervaiz, acting chief engineer for KPCIP-Swat.

He says that Mingora’s dependence on groundwater has become increasingly risky as aquifers continue to shrink under rising extraction pressure.

“For decades, Mingora relied on groundwater accessed through tube-wells. While this system served the city for many years, rapid urban growth, rising demand and falling groundwater levels made it increasingly unsustainable,” he says.

According to data obtained from the WSSC, groundwater levels across several cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been steadily declining and may soon fall beyond natural re-charge capacity if urgent corrective measures are not taken. Officials warn that the combination of climate change and urban expansion is intensifying the crisis.

The new water treatment plant aims to reduce dependence on underground aquifers by shifting the city toward surface water drawn directly from Swat River.

Pervaiz says planning and design work for the project has been going on since 2019. He says the stakeholders have include the provincial government, the local government, Elections and Rural Development Department, the WSSC Swat, the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

“This is not a standalone project. It is a part of a major institutional and infrastructure investment.”

The treatment facility will draw water from Swat River through an intake system at Khwazakhela before passing it through several purification stages, including screening, coagulation, sedimentation, rapid gravity filtration and chlorination.

Authorities say the treated water will then travel through a 17-kilometer transmission pipeline to overhead reservoirs before being distributed through approximately 485 kilometers of distribution network. Officials believe the project will eventually serve nearly 850,000 residents.

The water crisis, however, extends beyond the shortages. Officials and residents say unreliable supply has affected households, schools, businesses and public health.

“Water scarcity affects much more than household convenience,” Pervaiz says. “It impacts daily domestic routines, public health, schools, commercial activity and urban productivity overall. Reliable access to water is not just a utility — it is a foundation for health, education and economic activity.”

He says climate change has complicated the situation by disrupting traditional rainfall patterns and reducing winter snowfall in upper catchment areas that historically contributed to groundwater recharge.

“In recent years, that seasonal recharge mechanism has weakened considerably,” he says. “This challenge is not only about rising demand; it is also about changing hydrological realities.”

Under KPCIP, WSSCs are installing flow meters, replacing rusted pipelines and introducing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems to monitor water extraction and distribution in real time. Officials say the upgrades are aimed at reducing “non-revenue water” lost through leakages, theft and waste.

The introduction of metering and digital monitoring systems is expected to reduce over-extraction, improve operational efficiency and lower energy costs associated with pumping groundwater.

“Infrastructure projects of this scale naturally involve challenges,” Pervaiz says, citing utility shifting, right-of-way issues, underground service networks and the need to minimise disruption to residents during construction.

“This is not a single-structure project; it is an integrated city-wide system. This makes coordination as important as engineering,” he says. Despite the obstacles, officials remain optimistic that the project will fundamentally reshape Mingora’s water future.

With a design capacity of 30 million gallons per day, authorities say the scheme has been planned to meet the projected water demand for nearly 30 years.

“The cities continue to grow,” Pervaiz says. “This project is designed to resolve the current crisis and hopefully provide long-term water security.”

The remote Kalash valleys in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, marking a significant milestone in Pakistan’s cultural and heritage conservation efforts and bringing international recognition to one of the world’s oldest living indigenous communities.

With the inclusion of the Kalasha Cultural Landscape, the number of Pakistani sites on UNESCO’s Tentative List has increased to 29. Officials describe the development as “historic.” It is for the first time that an entire community from Pakistan and its traditions, beliefs and social system have been recognised in this manner.

Nestled in the rugged Hindu Kush mountain range of Chitral district, the three Kalash valleys, Bumburet, Rumbur and Birir are home to the Kalasha people, a small indigenous community – less than ten thousand people – known for its distinct culture, ancient traditions, colourful festivals and unique polytheistic belief system.

Geographical isolation has played a key role in preserving the Kalash identity for centuries. Surrounded by towering mountains and difficult terrain, the valleys have remained relatively protected from outside influences, allowing the community to maintain its traditional way of life.

The UNESCO nomination describes the Kalash Cultural Landscape as an “exceptionally well-preserved and continuously inhabited high mountain cultural environment” where daily life, religious practices, agriculture and community governance continue to operate according to centuries-old traditions.

Unlike archaeological sites frozen in history, the Kalash valleys represent a living and evolving cultural system where traditions are still actively practiced. The nomination highlights the close relationship between the Kalash people and their natural environment, saying the landscape has evolved through a deeply rooted connection between the community, its belief system, settlement patterns and surrounding ecology.

The cultural landscape includes more than 140 documented ceremonial sites, ritual platforms, ancestral graveyards with distinctive wooden carvings and traditional settlements. These sites continue to hold social and spiritual significance within the collective memory of the community.

Dr Abdul Samad, the director general of Archaeology and Museums in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, says the inclusion is a “landmark achievement” for the province and the country.

“This is one of the major achievements of the Directorate General of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he told The News on Sunday. “It accords international recognition to the unique living heritage of the Kalash community and brings global visibility to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan.”

Dr Samad said the recognition was expected to create new opportunities for local communities through responsible cultural tourism and sustainable economic activities.

“We expect major benefits for local communities through responsible cultural tourism, employment opportunities, local handicrafts, hospitality and international attention,” he said. “Heritage tourism can become a strong source of sustainable economic growth for the region.”

The UNESCO recognition could significantly increase international interest in the Kalash valleys, which are already among Pakistan’s most unique tourist destinations due to their rich traditions, festivals, architecture and scenic beauty.

Every year, thousands of domestic and foreign tourists visit the valleys to witness traditional Kalash festivals such as Chilam Joshi, Uchau and Choimus. Community members continue to wear traditional attire, practice ancient rituals and celebrate seasonal festivals that reflect their spiritual and cultural identity.

Their rich heritage aside, the Kalasha people face numerous challenges, including climate change, increasing modernisation, migration and pressure from unplanned development.

Dr Samad warned that these threats could gradually erode traditional lifestyles and cultural practices if adequate conservation measures were not implemented.

“The major challenges include climate change, modernisation pressures, unplanned development and the gradual loss of traditional practices,” he said. “UNESCO recognition will help strengthen conservation efforts, international collaboration and long-term protection of this unique cultural landscape.”

He said the inclusion in the Tentative List is only the beginning of a long and technical process required for full World Heritage status.

“The next step is the preparation of a comprehensive UNESCO nomination dossier, including conservation plans, mapping, documentation and community engagement,” he said. “This is a highly technical process. It may take several years, but we are committed to achieving full World Heritage status.”

Dr Samad credited the achievement to years of coordinated efforts involving provincial authorities, local communities, federal institutions and international partners.

“This milestone reflects years of dedicated work by the Directorate General of Archaeology and Museums, Government of KP, along with support from local communities, federal institutions and international partners,” he said. “It is a proud moment for the KP and Pakistan.”

For members of the Kalash community, the recognition carries emotional and cultural significance beyond international prestige.

Muhammad Kashif, a resident of the picturesque Bumburet Valley, described the development as a moment of immense pride and happiness for the community.

Speaking to TNS, he said the UNESCO recognition would improve the international image of the Kalash valleys and attract greater tourism to the region.

“This recognition will increase the global visibility of the Kalash valleys and help promote tourism,” he said. “It might create development opportunities and improve the local economy.”

He also expressed hope that the recognition would contribute to the preservation of the Kalash community’s centuries-old traditions and cultural heritage.

Zareen Khan, a member of the Kalash community, has been associated with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Culture and Tourism Authority for the past 16 years. He described UNESCO’s inclusion of the Kalash Valleys on its Tentative List as a long-awaited milestone for the community.

“This recognition is something we have hoped for, for many years,” he said, adding that the Kalash people had long sought an international platform to help preserve their culture, traditions and way of life.

According to Zareen Khan, forced conversions and outside cultural influences have posed serious challenges to the community over the years. He noted that the growing influence of external groups had contributed to a gradual decline in the Kalash population and cultural identity.

He said the UNESCO recognition had brought immense joy to the community and expressed gratitude to the provincial government and the Department of Archaeology for their efforts to secure the status.

Zareen Khan said the move would help protect the Kalash Valleys as a cultural heritage area, enabling local residents to live according to their traditions with reduced outside interference. He added that the recognition would strengthen efforts to safeguard Kalash customs, religious practices and cultural identity for future generations.

He also said the community hoped to practice its faith and cultural traditions freely and peacefully in its ancestral valleys while gaining greater recognition of its distinct identity.