PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will kick off its project of establishing 200 smart schools in the province when a model school, to be constructed by the World Bank, succeeds, according to sources.

They said that said Rs1 billion was allocated in the budget for establishment of prefabricated container schools, a new idea floated by the planning and development department in terms of structure.

They said that planning and development department had requested World Bank to establish a smart school prior to launching of the scheme of establishing smart schools in different parts of the province.

The World Bank also showed willingness and further correspondence was underway between the department and World Bank, they said.

Sources said that structural life and facilities in the proposed smart schools would be far better than the schools constructed by communication and works department. Bricks and mortar would not be used in the smart schools rather those would be prefabricated container schools, they said.

Prefabricated container structure to be built by mid-September

According to initial estimates, the establishment of a smart school of six classrooms will cost Rs120 million while currently communication and works department constructs a school of bricks and mortar by spending Rs150 million.

Sources said that structural life of the smart schools would be 10 years longer than that of the existing ones.

“The official life of the buildings of schools constructed by communication and works department is 40 years while the life of smart schools will be 50 years,” they said.

Sources said that although official life of a school building, constructed by communication and works department, was 40 years yet practically it was not in useable conditions after 15 to 20 years.

The construction standard of communication and works department was very poor, they added.

Sources said that communication and works department took more than two years to construct a school despite availability of funds while the smart school would take less than three months to complete.

Solar panels would be installed at the smart schools to provide uninterrupted power supply to those and avoid depending on Wapda.

As per initial planning, air conditions would also be installed in the classrooms for the first time in the history of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The prefabricated smart schools would be weather friendly.

Sources said that so far no province in the country had tried that model, however, NGOs constructed such schools in some countries of Africa. They said that PTI chief Imran Khan and high ups of provincial government would inaugurate the model of smart schools to be constructed by World Bank.

They said that World Bank was likely to establish the model smart school by mid of September. The future of the scheme would be decided after examining the model, they said.

Sources said that the task of execution of the scheme would be given to the education department if the model proved successful.

However, a senior official in education department told Dawn that establishment of smart school was idea of planning and development department. “Let it handle the scheme,” he added.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2016