ISLAMABAD: After being renovated under the Prime Minister’s Education Reform Programme, which was launched by former premier Nawaz Sharif in Dec 2015, 80 schools will likely be handed over to the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) in the coming few days.

Under the reform program, all 422 educational institutions in the federal capital were to be renovated in three phases- 22 in the first phase, and 200 each in the next two phases. However, the Sharif-led government could not complete the project and could only see through the first phase.

FDE sources said that of the remaining 400, contractors and project directors are claiming that 80 are ready to be handed over to the directorate. They said four teams formed by FDE will conduct inspections and will submit their report after which the directorate will decide if it wants to take over the schools.

Other than the first 22, none of the remaining 400 educational institutions have been renovated

FDE Director General Hasnat Qureshi told Dawn the inspection teams were told by the project directors that 80 schools are ready to be handed over to the FDE.

“My teams have almost finalised their reports and in the coming days, we will decide if we want to take over the schools. Otherwise, we will ask the contractors to complete their work,” he said, adding that there will be no compromise on the quality of work.

Another FDE officer said the directorate will only take over the schools where work has been fully completed as per the bill of quantity.

The previous government did not allocate a budget in fiscal year 2018-19 for the third phase of the programme and had instead allocated Rs845 million for the completion of the ongoing second phase.

The Capital Administration and Development Division was seeking Rs2.9 billion for the third phase in which the last 200 schools were to be renovated.

Under the programme, FDE was to get 200 school buses of which it has received 70 in the first phase and received 50 of the remaining 130 in the second phase. The remaining 80 are expected to be delivered in the next two months. The directorate paid in advance for the 130 buses.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2018