‘Idea of smart schools in KP not to materialise this year’

Primary schools with less than 50 students to be closed

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was told on Tuesday that the idea of smart schools reflected in the current financial year would not materialise in 2017 due to certain reasons while the primary schools having less than 50 students would be closed.

In response to a question, provincial Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Atif Khan informed the house that the smart or container schools were meant for those areas where the school buildings did not exist.

“Now we have dropped the idea of smart schools as pre-fabricated structure of the schools would not resist the seasonal effects in certain areas while a container class can hardly accommodate 30 students at a time,” he added.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government had reflected setting up about 200 smart schools in the annual budget for 2016-17 in order to provide school facilities to those areas where no school building existed.

The education minister also told the house that those primary schools where less than 50 students were admitted would be closed while its students and teachers would be shifted to the nearby schools.

However, he added that a school would not be closed in an area where there is no other school within two kilometres radius, particularly in the hilly areas. He argued that the step would be taken to reduce burden on the government exchequer.

During the question hour, the provincial assembly was informed that 100 government primary schools for girls and 50 primary schools for boys were reflected in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for 2015-16 whereas 87 primary schools for girls and 24 primary schools for boys were approved to be established. The house was informed that out of 87 schools, construction work on 11 girls’ primary schools and six boys’ primary schools had been completed.

The question related to delay in the construction of schools was referred to the standing committee of the house on the insistence of the mover Jafar Shah of the Awami National Party, who wanted to know as to why the proposed schools were not constructed within the specific period.

The provincial assembly also passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2017 pertaining to the newly established tehsil in Shangla district. The house also approved the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2017.