PESHAWAR. Over 150,000 teachers and many students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government schools will attend their academic sessions without having mobile phones from Monday, as the provincial education department has imposed a ban on its use in order to make the teaching environment a focus of attention.

“A total number of working teachers in government schools is 155,838 (99,030 male teachers + 56,808 female teachers) and overall enrolment in government schools is 4.835 million, out of which 0.185 million are enrolled in the nursery,” according to the annual school census report for settled districts 2020-21 issued by the KP government.

Though the education minister has brought up such a measure to focus on teaching, it is pertinent to mention that according to the KP Information Technology Board the internet penetration in the province is among the lowest in Pakistan. Over the years, media has reported constant disruption of internet access in Balochistan and tribal areas of KP.

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Moreover, activists have in the past urged the government to come up with alternatives when they introduce measures to ban one thing or another. The importance of smartphones and the internet has been further evident in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic when e-learning was the only source of imparting knowledge.

The decision was taken by Shahram Khan Tarakai, who is the KP elementary and secondary education minister, while presiding over a meeting of the province’s district education officers. He directed the DEOs that all teachers, school principals and students will be completely banned from using mobile phones in schools.

Tarakai added that action would be taken against violators of the rule. “Attention to the process of teaching must be undivided. All DEOs can make surprise visits one day a week along with routine visits.”

According to the education minister, all principals and headmasters will be required to report attendance and they will report attendance in the attendance registers on a daily basis. Tarakai added that he has directed the education monitoring authority officials to prepare indicators for monitoring all the officers of grade 17 and above as soon as possible so that their performance could also be reviewed.

He also directed the district administration that the appointment of more than 21,000 teachers in the province was under way, adding that efforts were under way to expedite the process following merit.

Tarkai directed the female DEOs to create facilities for female teachers and digitise most of the dealing system with them so that they would be safe from going around the offices and all focus on teaching and children. “Students are our first priority. We will provide all facilities to the teachers,” he said and stressed the need for improvement in performance.