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The Government of Punjab is assigning paramount importance to its constitutional obligation for the provision of free and compulsory education to children between the ages of 5 to 16 years and is undertaking multiple initiatives to impart quality education to all children across the province. To address the challenge of the supply gap with limited finances, SED adopted the approach to optimally utilize the infrastructure and human resources of existing primary schools. In this regard, an initiative with the name of ‘AFTERNOON SCHOOL PROGRAM’ was launched in selected schools of 22 districts of the Punjab. The aim of the programme is to ensure the transition from primary to middle level and address the issue of receding post-primary retention numbers across the Province. The following main issues have been addressed by the programme:

  • Low-cost solution to the OOSC problem at the post-primary level.
  • To provide free and compulsory education to children up to the age of 16 years.
  • To bring back children that have dropped out after primary schooling due to lack of access to middle schools.
  • The ASP places a special focus on targeting and bringing back girls students that have dropped out after the primary level with 60% of the schools established in Government Girls’ Primary Schools.

As per policy, the afternoon classes will be operated as per the following guidelines:

  • The CEOs of the selected districts will ensure that all the notified schools immediately start afternoon classes as per the following descriptions:
    1. Middle school classes in the buildings of notified primary schools.
    2. High school classes in the buildings of notified middle schools.
  • The schools have been selected based on the following criteria:
    1. Primary schools have been selected where there are no middle schools in the concerned union council or in a radius of 3 km (for boys) and 2 km (for girls). There are significant dropout cases (after primary education) in the area. There are at least two classrooms available along with all necessary basic facilities in the primary school and physical access to schools is easy and safe.
    2. Middle schools have been selected where there are no high schools in the concerned union council or in a radius of 5 km for boys and 3 km for girls. All the basic facilities like drinking water, toilet, electricity, and boundary wall are available in the school. The schools have easy and safe physical access.
  • The teaching and non-teaching staff hired for afternoon schools shall be paid an honorarium through the school council from the funds provided for this purpose. The Head Teacher with the consent of school council members will hire teachers from amongst his staff members, retired teachers, or qualified private persons having master’s or bachelor’s degrees as per the requirement for the smooth functioning of afternoon schools. The staff of afternoon schools shall be given the honorarium per month for managing the school as under:
POST Elementary School High School
Head Teacher Rs. 18,000 Rs. 20,000
Teacher Rs. 15,000 Rs. 18,000
Support Staff Rs. 7,000 Rs. 7,000
  • A maximum number of posts for afternoon schools will be allocated as per the following criteria:
Level of School Head Teacher Teachers Support Staff  Minimum Enrollment
Elementary 01 04 02 100
High 01 04 02 80

Afternoon schools will start classes after the closing of morning school. The opening and closing times will be notified by the DEAs as per their requirements, environment & weather conditions. However, it will be ensured that a minimum of 4:30 hours of teaching take place every day.

Scale-up

After validating the approach, it was decided to extend that regime in the remaining 14 Districts i.e. Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot, Narowal, M.B.Din, Lahore, Faisalabad, T.T. Singh, Multan, Khanewal and Sahiwal.

Afternoon School Programme at Glance

Afternoon School Programme by Category School Level Schools Enrolment Remarks
Insaf Afternoon School Programme (IASP) Pilot Phase 2019 Middle 82 4,587 Schools Remaining from 577
High 134 8,002
Afternoon School Programme (ASP) Scale-up phase 2021 Middle2022 6,729 171,927 Remaining from 7008 (Closed 279 1st year, 245 2nd year)
Middle2023 6,484 258,127
Afternoon School Programme (ASP) Middle to High (Proposal Agreed, Notification Awaited) High 1,000 District Validation planned
Afternoon School Programme (ASP) under TALEEM Middle 800 44,241 Completed (2,661 teachers in 800, to complete the target of 3200 teachers, 200 Schools have been added)
Middle 200 10,428
Total 1,000 54,669
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