CHINIOT: Of the 36 districts of Punjab, Chiniot district`s education standard ranks 27th on basis of poor quality of learning in the fourth quarter of 2016-17.

In the year, Chiniot was ranked the fourth district with excellent education indicators. However, the rank went down to the 15th in the second and third quarter andin the last quarter, it further downgraded to the 27th in the province. In the last quarter, April to June, 2017, Hafizabad, the neighbouring district of Chiniot, bagged the first position, followed by Jhelum, Kasur and Nankana Sahib.

Dawn learned though Chiniot schools had good attendance record of teachers and students but candidates` poor performance in literacy and numeric examinations by themonitoring staff struck hard the standing of the district.

Chiniot district schools got zero score in English, Urdu and mathematics tests. However, students attendance was 92.3 per cent against the target of 90%. It bagged the second position in teachers attendance indicator with 97%; also, 99.7 % of the facilities were functional in schools in April and May and 99.7% of the visits by officers and administrators were conducted.

Results showed that Chiniot schools had good indicators regarding management, infrastructure, discipline and attendance, however, a majority of Chiniot schools failed to improve the quality of learning in tests given to class three onward in Urdu, English and mathematics.

District Monitoring Officer Samina Niazi told Dawn that their department was only responsible forcollecting data from schools and submitting to senior officers. She said they had recommended actions against teachers whose students did not pass tests.

District Education Authority Chief Executive Officer Liaqat Ali Nasir said that they had improved indicators like attendance, retention of students in schools and inf rastructure and now, they would focus on improving the quality of education of students. For the purpose, new educators had been recruited and their training had started.

Moreover, the supervisory officers had also been directed to ensure imparting quality education to students so they could better give tests to improve the ranking of Chiniot in the future.

The parents of the students of the public sector schools demanded Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif take notice of the situation of schools.