LAHORE DESPITE lapse of one month since an announcement by the chief minister, the government top brass has yet to adopt schools. Shahbaz Sharif had announced adopting a public school in the rural area of Lahore while formally launching the next phase of Schools Reforms Roadmap titled ‘Parho Punjab—Barho Punjab’ on March 30. The chief minister had also said that besides him, the provincial ministers, chief secretary, administrative secretaries, heads of different departments, commissioners, RPOs, DCOs and DPOs of the province each would also adopt a school. However, sources in the School Education Department Punjab said neither the chief minister nor the Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan and others had formally adopted any public school in any part of the province so far. The academic circles and people from different walks of life had welcomed the CM’s announcement in the wake of deteriorating standard of education and missing facilities at public schools. They were of the view that such active involvement on part of those at the helm would definitely help in improving public schools both in terms of quality and infrastructure. The sources privy to the developments said the ‘delay’ in adoption of public schools by the CM and other officials was also partly because of traditional sluggishness at the Schools Department, as it failed to identify the schools to be adopted. They also said the department even did not issue any directions/requests to the officials regarding the CM’s announcement of adopting public schools hence most of them were unaware of the same. It is pertinent to mention here that new academic session began at public schools in Punjab from April 1, while almost three months’ summer vacation will be commencing from June. Therefore, if the ongoing month could not be utilised vis-à-vis the adoption of schools almost half of the academic session would pass without implementing the CM’s announcement. It is therefore the academic circles suggest that the Schools Department should not only identify the schools which need more attention of the high-ups at the earliest but also make the list of adopted schools public so that the stakeholders could see and feel the difference before and after the adoption of a particular school. When contacted, Secretary Schools Abdul Jabbar Shaheen confirmed that the chief minister had yet to adopt a school. When asked which school had been adopted by the education minister, he expressed his ignorance. To another question, without mentioning any name, Secretary Schools claimed that he had adopted a small public school in GOR-II. The News could not reach Rana Mashhood despite repeated attempts on his cell phone.
