PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has directed authorities to provide furniture to government schools in the province on an urgent basis.

He issued these directives while chairing a meeting with senior officials of the elementary and secondary education department here, according to a statement issued here on Monday.

The meeting, which was called to examine the performance, mandate, and challenges of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Monitoring Authority (KPEMA), was attended by education secretary Masood Ahmad, director (education) Samina Altaf, KPEMA director general Sohail Khan and other senior officials.

The chief minister said that data should be collected on missing facilities in the schools, and desks and chairs should be provided to schools immediately.`No student in government schools should have to study without proper seating arrangements,` he said, asking the education department to address the shortages of other facilities in schools.

Mr Gandapur also ordered the immediate construction of boundary walls and washrooms in schools, with priority given to those for girls. He said the government would provide all necessary resources on a priority basis to improve school infrastructure.

He said in order to enhance the quality of education in remote areas, strict monitoring of teachers` attendance should be ensured. He called for reinstatement of rewards for highperforming schools and teachers simultaneously.

The chief minister ordered disciplinary action against underperforming teachers and schools and saidabsenteeism among teachers in government schools would not be tolerated.

He said that measures based on KPEMA reports would be implemente d without delay.

The chief minister agreed with theproposal to establisha dedicated wing for ensuring quality education in public sector schools within KPEMA and directed officials to formalise it for approval.

He also said the authority should hold the provincial review meetings on a monthly basis.

Mr Gandapur said in order to further strengthen KPEMA, the finance department should provide the funds required for providing modern gadgets and digitising all monitoring processes.

Officials briefed the meeting thatevery government school in the province was inspected at least once a month.

They said the province had a total of 34,724 government schools, including 28,372 in settled districts and 6,397 in merged tribal districts.

The officials also said 2,174 community schools for girls and 1,074 schools with double shifts were being monitored.

They said that monthly monitoring and annual school censuses were conducted using anandroid app, ensuring real-time uploads, while reports and analytics were available online for the examination of all stakeholders.

The officials reported a significant reduction in teacher absenteeism, with rates dropping from 23 per cent to 14 per cent in settled districts and from 27 per cent to 23 per cent in merged districts.

The chief minister said efforts should be made to bring absenteeism down to zero.

The officials said to enhance transparency and reduce human interven-tion, KPEMA launched the Online Action Information Management System last year.

He saidthat through the system, Rs12 million worth of fines were imposed, while the monitoring authority`s data collection on textbook requirements saved Rs7 billion costs for the academic year 2024-25.

The chief minister said the government was committed to ensuring quality education for all students. He pledged to continue making efforts to improve public schooling across the province.