All KP Schools Monitored Under IMU Regime

Since the launch of Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) in 2014 all government schools in KP are being successfully monitored on key education indicators. It has significantly contributed in reducing teaching and non-teaching absenteeism, identification of non-functional schools resulting in their reopening and identification of missing facilities in schools across the province, said a press release issued here on Thursday.

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Since the launch of Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) in 2014 all government schools in KP are being successfully monitored on key education indicators. It has significantly contributed in reducing teaching and non-teaching absenteeism, identification of non-functional schools resulting in their reopening and identification of missing facilities in schools across the province, said a press release issued here on Thursday.

In the past three years, the IMU has shown substantial results in reporting data on key education indicators in a timely, reliable and effective manner. Since May 2014, availability of this data has resulted in decreasing student absenteeism by 20% and teacher absenteeism from 19% to 12%, 440 non-functional schools were made functional, electricity unavailability decreased from 38% to 16%, water unavailability from 27% to 12%, toilet unavailability 13% to 4% specially in girls' schools and lack of boundary-wall has been decreased from 17% to 4%.

Since May 2014, the Directorate of Elementary and Secondary Education has recovered a substantial amount of Rs210 million in the form of penalties from absentee teachers.

Last, year Annual School Census was conducted by IMU and was completed in a successful in a timely manner in a period of just two months. The data were collected independently by the DCMAs that make it more objective in their reporting.

The IMU has been introduced in the development of school improvement plans (SIP) where the medium-term budget allocation of the conditional grant has been made on the basis of data collected by the unit.

It is also tracking the implementation of these plans, and the data collected has assisted the Education Sector Reform Unit (ESRU) to develop a three-year medium-term plan to provide funds for missing facilities from 2017-18 to 2019-20. Another special task is Teacher Incentive Programme under which evaluation of awards for teachers are made on the basis of data collected by IMU.

Prizes worth Rs220 million were distributed in 2017 and 2018, among the teachers of the government schools who performed well.

There are 550 Data Collection and Monitoring Assistants (DCMAs) working in IMU. The DCMAs, equipped with smart phones loaded with prudently developed monitoring applications, visit over 28,000 schools every month.

Project Director IMU Adeel Shah said, "The implementation of an independent and neutral monitoring regime by IMU has brought a substantial improvement in the education sector viz-a-vis teacher attendance and infrastructure development in the government schools". Availability of real-time credible data is helping in policy making and future planning for limiting the outdated teaching practices in the education sector. The IMU's ability to respond to the growing requirements of the credible data through the use of technology has been recognized by all the stakeholders.

The assigning of additional responsibilities to the DMOs as head of district scrutiny committee is recognition of IMU's contribution to public service delivery.