Newly inducted minister of education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Akbar Ayub Khan, on Wednesday visited the Directorate of Elementary and Secondary Education, vowing that he would do all to ensure quality education for achieving socio-economic development.
The education minister was received by Elementary and Secondary Education Director Hafiz Muhammad Ibrahim and district education officers of all districts, including the merged districts of former FATA.
Khan urged employees of the directorate to work as a team for the uplift of educational standards, so that the youth could be prepared for successfully meeting modern day’s challenges and attaining a bright future for the province and the country.
He said collective efforts would be made to promote quality education, besides addressing problems which confronted teachers and management cadre employees.
Akbar Ayub Khan is an MPA who represents PK-50 Haripur-II constituency. Khan remained an advisor for Communication and Works (C&W) in the cabinet of former KP CM Pervez Khattak until 2018. After the PTI formed government in KP following the 2018 general elections, Khan was appointed Minister for C&W in August 2018 by KP CM Mehmood Khan. In a recent cabinet reshuffle January 3, his portfolio was changed from C&W to education.
According to the Pakistan Education Statistics Report 2016-17, Pakistan had about 51.53 million children between ages five and 16, with 44 percent children out of schools. Per estimates of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education, there are close to 1.8 million children aged 5-17 that are out of school in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, with 64% being girls.
In the former Tribal Areas, 57 percent of the child population is not enrolled in schools, with more than 70% of girls in the school-going age bracket remaining out of schools.
The new education minister has a mammoth task ahead of him and only time will tell if he and his team rise to the challenge.
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