A review meeting on the Good Governance Roadmap reforms in the Elementary and Secondary Education Department was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Shahab Ali Shah. The meeting was attended by Secretary Elementary and Secondary Education and other concerned officials.
The forum was informed that sports competitions will be organized for school students to provide them with constructive extracurricular opportunities alongside education. Competitions will be held from inter-school to tehsil, district, divisional, and provincial levels. Available school lands have been identified, while plans for constructing playgrounds and providing indoor games facilities are also underway. Provincial-level competitions in debates, story writing, and spelling bees will also be arranged.
The meeting was briefed that under the governance roadmap, furniture supply has already been initiated in most schools across the province, and the remaining demand will be met accordingly. Work is also in progress for the provision of other basic facilities in schools.
To ensure 90 percent teacher attendance, a digital attendance system will first be introduced in all higher secondary schools. The Chief Secretary directed that a report on action against absentee teachers be submitted by October 10. It was also informed that the provincial cabinet has approved the outsourcing of underperforming schools, with 500 schools, including those in merged districts, to be outsourced in the first phase. The outsourcing process will not affect the service of teachers, while education will remain free of cost, with all expenses to be borne by the provincial government.
The Chief Secretary was further apprised that a CCTV surveillance project in high-risk examination centers is on track, while a two-year transfer policy is being introduced in education boards. Recruitment through ETEA is also underway to ensure a minimum of four teachers in each primary school, while classroom shortages are being addressed through various means, including assistance from international development partners.
The Chief Secretary directed the Education Department to devise a plan for overcoming classroom shortages in all primary schools, specifying the resources to be used so that the government may take informed decisions and complete the process within a set timeframe. He further instructed the Finance and Planning & Development departments to monitor the governance roadmap initiatives separately to ensure their timely completion.
It was also informed that reforms in the examination system are in progress, and the next board examinations will be conducted under the Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) and cluster-based method. Under this system, students will appear in nearby cluster examination centers instead of their own schools.