Education dept gets Rs2bn to upgrade 10,000 schools

Karachi

With a funding of Rs2 billion provided by the World Bank (WB), the Sindh Education Department on Wednesday launched a project focusing on improving the infrastructure of 10,000 schools across the province.

This was disclosed in a meeting, presided over by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, at the CM House.

A total of 3,000 schools had so far been chosen to be provided with proper facilities, of which 1,600 would be covered by the end of June this year.

Qaim directed the education department to ensure schools functioning without washrooms and a boundary wall were provided with both the facilities on war footings.

The directives for boundary walls were given in the wake of the National Action Plan’s (NAP) security protocol issued in the aftermath of the APS Peshawar  attack (December 2014) and the Charsadda University attack last month.

Secretary Eduaction Dr Fazallullah Pechuho observed the schools would be provided with basic facilities such as washrooms, a boundary wall and drinking water besides other necessary facilities.

Briefing the CM about development projects taken up by the government, Dr Pechuho stated that development schemes, worth Rs10 billion, had been initiated in six sub-sectors.

The projects included upgrading elementary education which had 24 schemes worth Rs768 million; seven schemes worth Rs152 million for teachers’ education; three schemes for Sindh Education Foundation worth Rs512 million. Secondary Education was claimed to have 66 schemes worth Rs4.6 billion, higher education had 54 schemes worth for Rs2.37 billion while Rs1.5 billion had been allocated for 41 miscellaneous schemes.

The 16 schemes scheduled to be completed by June included completion of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto College of Education (Rs178 million), construction of an auditorium, boundary wall, water supply plant at Cadet College Petaro (Rs163 million), reconstruction of Commerce and Arts block in the Degree College for Men, Nazimabad (Rs74.5 million).

The CM directed the education minister to keep visiting the project sites to ensure quality work was being carried out and that they were timely completed. The meeting was attended by Senior Minister for Education Nisar Khuhro, Principal Secretary to CM Alamuddin Bullo, Additional Chief Secretary (Development) Mohammad Waseem, Secretary Finance Sohial Rajput besides other concerned officials.