Ghulam Mursalin Marwat
LAKKI MARWAT: The district elementary and secondary education department has started implementing a strategy to hold coordination meetings with heads of schools to improve performance indicators including teachers and students attendance.
The provincial government has introduced multiple reforms in education sector with the support of DFID (UK Department For International Development) through Adam Smith International (ADI) as executing agency. Under reforms the government has developed a sense of competition among all the districts for better performance in education sector”, said ADI district delivery executive Saqib Rehman on Sunday.
He said the organisation designed a format for comparison of districts and evaluate their education performance in 20 indicators. He said that the indicators included students learning outcomes (grade 5 &10), progress on ADP schemes, student enrollment, teachers and students attendance, attendance of non teaching staff, functioning of non functional schools, availability of basic facilities and provision of free textbooks to students.
“Other indicators are provision of stipend to students, supply of furniture to schools, optimal student-teacher ration, completion of IT labs, completion of work on provision of missing facilities, filled positions/posts, establishment of play areas, and initiation of action on teachers absence cases through online action management system”, he maintained, saying that under the mechanism of performance evaluation system Lakki Marwat district topped the province in last three months of previous year with the score of 77.1%, 77.23% and 70.53% respectively.
DEO Abdul Salam claimed that the district topped the province in education performance for three months consecutively due to the hard work of local ESED managers and technical assistanc extended by partner organisations. He said that despite showing outstanding performance in several indicators the department felt that few indicators needed improvement on urgent basis.
“During the last three months of previous year we learnt that Lakki Marwat district is lagging behind in teachers and students attendance, functionality of parent teacher councils and action on teachers’ absenteeism cases under online action management system (OAMS)”, he disclosed, saying that local ESED officials sat together, sought help from partner organisations and devised a comprehensive strategy to improve required indicators.
Shedding light on strategy he said the education managers planned holding meetings with head teachers of primary schools at circle level and headmasters and principals of middle, high and higher secondary schools at district level so as to sensitise them about their key role in curbing absenteeism and ensuring presence of teachers and students in their respective institutions.
