ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training has postponed the process of opening financial bids of consultant firms to be hired for a mega project aimed at providing basic facilities in 189 educational institutions of Islamabad till December 29.

The ministry was supposed to open the bids on Dec 20, however, due to the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which concluded on Monday, the process was delayed till Dec 29.

Sources said around 10 consultant firms had submitted their bids, adding that other interested companies could also join the process till Dec 28 and the bids would be opened on Dec 29.

The consultant will be supposed to prepare a detailed design and supervise the project worth around Rs7 billion.

New date set for Dec 29; uplift scheme worth Rs6.9bn to be executed in phases

It is a flagship project of the education ministry headed by Federal Minister Shafqat Mahmood, who played the main role in getting funds allocated in the fiscal year 2021-22.

“The successful bidder will prepare a detailed design and survey. Then we will move for calling tenders to award the work,” said an official of the ministry.

A senior officer of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) said the project, ‘Provision of basic facilities in educational institutions of ICT’ worth Rs6.9 billion will be executed in phases and for the current fiscal year the government has already allocated Rs409 million for it.

Under the reform programme launched by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, around 200 schools were face-lifted in the capital. As the remaining 183 schools were not part of the project, the education ministry and the FDE got funds approved for the new project. Besides civil works, the project will provide basic facilities, including IT labs, in the institutions.

FDE officials said most of the buildings in schools were in a dilapidated condition requiring rehabilitation on a priority basis to ensure safety of students.

A working paper of FDE stated: “Project was prepared keeping in view the fact that FDE has mostly retained educational institutions handed over from the government of Punjab in 1973 and 1985.”

A substantial portion of these buildings is in a dilapidated condition requiring rehabilitation on a priority basis to ensure safety of the students in a conducive environment for quality education.

Whereas annual repair and maintenance of buildings is a recurring feature of civil work, there are no funds allocated to schools/colleges of FDE to maintain their physical infrastructure.

The working paper said it is only the PSDP which meets the infrastructural needs of institutions be it the rehabilitation of existing facilities or construction of new structures.

Recently, the government through an ordinance had decided to place the FDE under the yet to be elected mayor. However, teachers resisted the move and during their meeting with the federal minister they appreciated his efforts to get funds for the project.

They stated that if the FDE was devolved to the local government and the mayor, such mega projects could not be executed in future as only the federal government could fund them.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2021