Staff Report
PESHAWAR: Secretary Elementary and Secondary Education Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muhammad Khalid Khan distributed 460 Android Tablets among the teachers of government schools and termed this initiative as a landmark achievement of the Multi-Year Resilience Program (MYRP). It is a step towards promoting digital literacy and such kind of initiative will help equip the teachers and students with the essential digital literacy skills for future employment and daily life, he added.
He was addressing a ceremony, organized by Participatory Rural Development Society, VSO International and ECW here at PUTA Hall, University of Peshawar. The event was attended by VSO International Country Representative Seher Afsheen, PRDS Chief Executive Arjumand Shah, the provincial head of Multi Year Resilience Program Tariq Hayat Yousafzai, education department officers, educationists and students in large number. Secretary Education also distributed wheel chairs, hearing aid accessories and walking stands among the physically challenged male and female students during the ceremony.
Addressing the occasion, Seher Afsheen highlighted the key achievements of the MYR program and said that the basic purpose of the program was to provide access to comprehensive, equitable and standardized education for vulnerable children in the northern and western regions of the country, who are affected by crises or other factors. She said it is a fact that equal educational opportunities still remains a challenge today and through this initiative we accessed and facilitated thousands of students, including disabled children.
While Mr. Arjumand shah said that during phase-1 of MYRP, 1136 tablets were distributed in MYRP focused government schools (Boys & Girls) of Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera and a total of 1596 tablets have been distributed among the teachers so far to complement the initiatives of the government for boosting digital literacy. He said that CLP and Early Childhood Education Centers were established to provide access to quality and conducive educational environment for boys and girls and in these CLP and ECE centers more than 6,000 children got graduated. To ensure a learning friendly environment at schools, toilets were rehabilitated and other missing facilities were also provided in 72 schools, similarly hygiene and dignity kits were distributed among the 3,300 girl students.
Addressing the ceremony the provincial head of MYRP Tariq Hayat said that under the Distance Learning Program, scholarships were offered to 1,223 female students to complete their matric education through Allama Iqbal Open University. Similarly Catch-up Learning Program was introduced, benefiting 4844 students who were dropped out of school due to various reasons and they were re-admitted to schools. He further added that during enrollment campaigns, with the support of community volunteers, education champions and religious scholars thousands of boys and girls students were enrolled in schools. Tariq Hayat informed the participants about the importance of technical and vocational training courses and added that more than 1200 students including girls were also equipped with skill based education like tailoring, beautician, CCTV camera installation, digital learning, marketing and other vocational skills so that instead of job seekers, they may become job creators and support their parents in their own household expenses.
In view of the growing challenges of climate change and environment, more than 4000 saplings were planted in schools to create awareness among the students about the protection of environment. On this occasion, Secretary Education, Khalid Khan highly appreciated the objectives and success of MYR Program especially the health screening component of the program funded by ECW and added that timely and periodic health screening of students in schools is very important so that children facing problems like low eyesight, hearing and other forms of disabilities could be highlighted in time and timely actions can be taken accordingly by providing required assistive devices policies and decisions.
He said that in the modern digital era, it is very important to equip teachers and children with technology especially children should be equipped with digital and technical education, which is the need of the hour. During the distribution of tablets, wheelchairs and other aid accessories, the Secretary also interacted with the teachers and parents. At the end, shields were also distributed among the guests and best performing program officials.
