KP govt gets Rs26m for Rs33m publicity

ISLAMABAD: The much-trumpeted “Tameer-e-School” project of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has so far generated only Rs26 million donations since April 2014, despite aggressive publicity campaign costing Rs33 million.
According to certified information provided by the KP government, as of December 17, 2014, an amount of Rs24.86 million has been collected as donation for the improvement of government schools in the province under the Tameer-e-School project which was aimed at constructing new educational facilities and revamping the existing ones by raising funds.
While responding to a request by a civil society activist Muhammad Saleem, Elementary Education Foundation (EEF), KP disclosed that an amount of Rs31.6 million was spent for the publicity of the project and an additional Rs1.32 million was spent on its launching ceremony.
The KP CM Pervaiz Khattak and several ministers of the KP government attended the ceremony at government Girls Primary School, Peshawar on April 30, 2014. Several advertisements were published in national media and a television campaign was also aired though an advertisement agency.
KP Minister for Information and Higher Education Mushtaq Ghani justified the publicity budget saying that the campaign was aimed at generating maximum donations for the landmark project. He said the cost of TV advertisement is high and the amount of Rs31.6 million was reasonable to motivate the donors. “We have to allocate more budget for publicity of this project because of its potential to generate massive private funding for the KP schools,” he said.
However, the minister claimed that the latest figure of donation amount by Saturday (January 31) was Rs26 million instead of Rs24.6 million.The minister said the project encourages overseas Pakistanis and locals to contribute for the improvement of facilities at schools including the construction of toilets, classrooms, boundary walls etc.
“The government alone cannot improve the education sector. We need Rs7 billion for the construction of boundary walls around schools across KP to enhance their security in the wake of Peshawar APS terror attack that claimed lives of 142 pupils,” Ghani said. He said the donations are directly sent to the Parent Teacher Committee (PTC) of the intended school and the government’s EEF only monitors the programme.
“The dedicated website of the programme keeps the donor posted about the progress of the development work at his intended school,” he said.