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10,000 schools opened so far: Ministry targets 20,000 non-formal schools
ISLAMABAD, Aug 31: The Education Ministry
will establish 20,000 non-formal schools across the country till 2010 under its
new programme 'National Education Foundation' (NEF). Under the old programme,
Non-formal Basic Education, 82,000 schools were to be opened but the programme
flopped.
NEF Deputy Director Nuzhat Rehman said
the previous target could not be met but now almost half of the target had been
achieved. "Till now we have opened 10,000 non-formal schools throughout the
country which focus on women education," she said. Rehman said previously the
age limit for enrolment was five but now it had been increased to 14 for girls
and nine for boys. The flexibility in age limit has increased the strength of
girl students up to 100 per cent, she claimed.
"In order to improve the
standard of education, minimum qualification for teachers is intermediate and
salaries have also been doubled. We are giving Rs 4,000 to a matriculate
teacher, Rs 5000 to an intermediate teacher and Rs 5,500 to a graduate teacher.
Previously, Rs 1,000 was fixed for teachers of all categories," she pointed
out.
Rehman said they were focusing on teaching methodology and for this
purpose they conducted a six-day workshop every year for teachers besides a
15-day teaching course after their appointment.
Rehman said that NGOs had
been involved in the whole mechanism to monitor the quality of education. "The
NGOs point out areas needing such institutions and we give them Rs 500 every
month for identification of the place and supervision of the school," she
said.
Rehman said the government provided books and other necessary items
for the schools while there were no compulsions on the students to wear
uniforms.
Talking about results, she admitted that their students were
not that hopeful and they were trying to improve their pass
percentage.
"The pass percentage of our students in the last federal
board exam was 34 percent. This is not very encouraging, but we have not given
up," she said. Talking about the schedule of these schools, she said they
conducted internal exams up to class four and board exams for class five. "The
list of the students is made by their teachers and submitted to the federal
board, while the exam fee is paid by the government."
She said the
targeted time period for teaching up to fifth class was 40 months, eight months
for each class unlike the formal studies, which took almost one year for one
class. Daily times
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