Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has said that the provincial government does not intend to abolish any educational board in the province but is simply working on introducing IT-based reforms to ensure a uniform marking and examination system to end discrimination.
During a meeting regarding the educational system, Chief Minister stated that reforms in every sector are pivotal in order to meet the contemporary challenges, while outdated procedures and laws are not only hindering development but are also jeopardizing the future of our children.
Historically, Peshawar was the sole educational board in the former North West Frontier Province (NWFP) at the time of independence in 1947. While people across the province used to travel to the Provincial capital for mere registration in exams, and issuance of marks sheets/degrees and were compelled to incur valuable money, time, and physical fatigue for such trival jobs. However, after massive pubic and students demands, Provincial government constituted the Malakand, Abbottabad, Kohat, DI Khan, Swat, and Mardan educational boards in the 1990s and afterward. Recently, the PTI government in KP formed a five-member committee to constitute a mechanism through which all seven Intermediate and Secondary Education Boards (BISEs) will be submerged in the Peshawar board. According to the plan, Peshawar BISE will act as a motherboard with branch/liaison offices in each district while the current seven boards will be gradually removed. Interestingly, the supporters of Naya Pakistan decided to transport question papers and other examination material from Peshawar to remote areas by road, while answersheets would be collected in same manner. The impractical method abondened by the past governments some three decades ago.
In fact, the KP government has conceived this idea from former British rulers or their Hindu colleagues who gathered all powers in Delhi, and people across Indo-Subcontinent were traveling to capital for education and jobs. later, this recipe was used in East and West Pakistan provinces during the 1960s. Hence, the reformers must introduce some better ideas as strandarization and computirzation of system can be visualized in the existing mechanism and doesn’t require reimplementaion of centuries old imperialistic version of governance. Although, PTI government is using multiple formulas to consolidate power and retain rule after the next general elections, hence adding to public woes and creating new issues would be counterproductive in the long run.
