PESHAWAR: Senior officials on Saturday praised the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation (KPEF) for its performance, especially efforts for the provision of low-cost education to underprivileged children in the province.

During the graduation ceremony of the students of non-formal primary schools, they, however, remained tight-lipped about the non-payment of salary to the teachers of those educational institutions for the last two years.

A staff member of the KPEF told Dawn that a summary was sent to the finance department more than one and a half years ago for the release of Rs500 million to pay salary to those teachers, but the department had been sitting on it.

The event was attended by Governor Ghulam Ali, provincial chief secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, the minister for elementary and secondary education, the education secretary and senior relevant officials.

First graduation ceremony of these educational institutions held

It was the first graduation ceremony of these community schools where gold medals were given away to three boys and girls each for securing top positions in a competition held for the graduating students of 3,800 community schools across the province.

Community schools with enrolment of both boys and girls have been established in the areas without educational institutions in both public and private sectors.

During the ceremony, the governor said the teachers working in far-off areas of the province were actually waging a war against ignorance.

He said he was shocked to learn that 3.5 million children were out of school in the province.

The governor also said that the institutions like the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation would enrol out-of-school children and provide them with modern formal education.

He said that the graduating students would finally get admission to colleges and universities with their excellence in the respective fields to the credit of their teachers.

He said it was the responsibility of the government to allocate the maximum funds for the ESEF in the budget.

The chief secretary said that children should get education whether it was offered in schools or outside.

He said non-formal schools were an excellent source of formal learning in far-off areas.

“Currently, students enrolled in non-formal schools total 200,000, which is an encouraging number,” he said.

Elementary and secondary education secretary Muttasim Billah Shah said the province had 3.5 million out-of- school children, who had emerged as a “very big issue.”

He said for providing education to those children, non-formal schools were the best option available to the government.

ESEF managing directorZareeful Mani said non-formal education was the most ignored sector despite the provision of low-cost education to the residents of far-off areas.

“Non-formal education is a very cost-effective solution to illiteracy, especially among out-of-school children,” he said.

The MD said that the government required Rs1.5 trillion and around 200 years to set up 15,000 schools to enrol out-of-school children in the province.

He regretted that the government established only 100 schools every year.

During the ceremony, the governor also inaugurated the country’s first virtual science laboratory.

Mr Maani said the initiative would empower the students of secondary and higher secondary classes with an “immersive and interactive learning experience.”

He also said the lab would prove to be a game-changer for students getting education through the ESEP’s Participatory Online and Home Learning Alternative programme.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2023