ISLAMABAD, Aug 28: Army will assist Ministry of Education in providing missing facilities to primary and elementary schools throughout the country including Azad Kashmir, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Northern Areas.

According to ISPR, army monitoring teams along with representatives of provincial education ministries and district administration in all provinces except Punjab will carry out survey of schools so as to provide them with requisite facilities which are missing.

The programme in Punjab will be executed through National Logistic Cell (NLC). Army teams have been assigned the responsibility of conducting assessment survey of those schools which will be earmarked by Provincial Governments as well as District Administration. Army survey teams have also been assigned the responsibility of formulating implementation plans, quality control and completing projects in time.

The five years implementation programme was approved by National Steering Committee on Education Sector Reforms Programme in a meeting held in September last with a financial outlay of Rs32 billion.

In the first phase, survey of girls primary schools, boys primary schools, girls middle schools and boys middle schools will be carried out.

Survey teams will assess the requirement of class rooms and washrooms, clean drinking water, electricity and boundary walls for girls schools.

Joint survey teams will also assess the provision of one computer laboratory for every Middle School, one class room for 40 students, at least one washroom per class and one for staff. In the second phase detailed plans including number of schools and facilities to be developed, design specification and tendering of contracts will be undertaken.

In the third phase, all projects will be implemented through civilian contractors. Representatives of federal, provincial, district governments and army will form part of implementation and monitoring committees.

In the first year, districts of Mirpur and Sudhnoti in Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Skardu in Northern Areas, Jacobabad and Tharparkar in Sindh, D I Khan and Swabi in NWFP, Bajaur and Kurram Agencies in FATA, Dera Bugti and Musa Khel in Balochistan and Islamabad Capital Territory have been selected for the survey.

The implementation plan will be extended subsequently to other districts in next four years.