Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has allocated Rs 6 billion to purchase furniture for government schools across the province.
KP chief minister Mahmood Khan and minister for elementary and secondary education Shahram Khan Taraki launched the provision of furniture programme on Thursday.
Both the functionaries handed over furniture to administration of the Government Hasnain Shaheed School No 1, Peshawar City.
Education department, following the direction of KP chief minister has allocated Rs 6 billion to purchase furniture for 2.4 million students of the province.
Government will spent the Rs 6 billion in two tranches of Rs 3 billion each for purchasing furniture for the students.
This allocation is likely to result into provision of proper furniture for nearly 95 per cent of school students.
The allocation is likely to put an end to the era of using ‘taat’ or jute floor mat for seating students in classrooms.
Teachers fears regarding replacing floor mats
However, on the other many teachers fear that provision of furniture would also create problems in adjusting large number of students into classrooms.
They said that government schools usually have the strength of up to 100 students in a class. Such a large number of students easily sit on jute mats; however, it would be challenge to place 100 desk in a classroom, feared a teacher.
A female primary school teacher also agreed with this. The teacher said that she has 90 students in a class. She said that it would be next to impossible to adjust furniture for them into a crammed classroom. “These students easily sit on mats,” she added.
She proposed that government first needs to build additional rooms in schools before providing them furniture.
She said that floor mats in most government schools are extremely worn out and dirty and government should replace them.
However, students across the province are happy with the prospects of getting to sit on new furniture.
