Students face difficulties as work in schools remains incomplete
ISLAMABAD: Students in Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) run schools are facing difficulties due to incomplete renovations and construction work in their institutions.
Sources said work on renovating 200 FDE-run schools under phase-II of the Prime Minister’s Education Reform Programme has almost halted the last few months.
They said Islamabad Model School for Girls (IMSG) Sangjani and IMSG Gokina are the most affected and students in these institutions have to sit in under construction classrooms.
“What can we do? We have taken the issue up with our senior officers,” an FDE official said, adding that the directorate has received many complaints regarding the incomplete work.
“Students in the Sangjani school have to sit either in the open or in under-construction rooms with no windows,” he said, adding that classes have to be called off when it starts to rains.
Work on phase-II of the Prime Minister’s Education Reform Programme has almost halted
Students in the Gokina school have to attend classes in the open, he said, adding that Gokina is situated in the Margalla Hills and gets very cold during the winters.
The official said that after receiving complaints from teachers, FDE Director General Dr Ali Ahmed Kharal also visited the school.
According to sources, renovation and construction work is incomplete in almost all the 200 schools. They said contractors have said they cannot carry on with work because they are not being paid.
FDE officers said the matter should be taken up with the education ministry and that the required funds should be released.
Sources said that according to the project director, work has been completed in 80 schools but the formal handing over has not been done yet as FDE officials do not want to involve themselves in the project, which is already being probed by the National Accountability Bureau due to allegation of substandard work being done.
The reform programme was the brain child of Maryam Nawaz who is said to have convinced her father, who was then prime minister, after seeing the condition of some government schools.
All 422 educational institutions in the federal capital were to be renovated- 22 in the first phase, 200 in the second and 200 in the third. But the PML-N government could not complete the project in its tenure and the second phase is still ongoing.
Project Director Waqas Farid told Dawn that the federal government had allocated Rs845 million for the project in the fiscal year 2018-19 of which Rs169 million were released.
“The delay in funding is the main reason for the delay in the completion of work,” he said, and that work has not been completely halted, but is going on at a slow pace.
Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2019