KARACHI: None of the 120 schools affected by the 2010 floods has so far been reconstructed in full and made functional despite passage of almost five years to their destruction in the calamity, forcing extension in tenure of a foreign-funded programme for the schools’ reconstruction, it emerged on Saturday.

Officials in the provincial government said the schools’ reconstruction was a key component of the USAID-Sindh Basic Education Program (SBEP), which was launched in seven districts of northern Sindh, including Khairpur, Sukkur, Larkana, Qambar, Dadu, Jacobabad and Kashmore; and five towns of Karachi – Lyari, Keamari, Orangi, Gadap and Bin Qasim.

The programme includes reconstruction of 120 schools and support the Sindh government’s reform policy on consolidation and merger of schools. The total construction component is worth $81 million.

The programme has other components as well including community mobilisation, Sindh reading programs and capacity development of the education department etc with a total worth of $74 million. These components are being directly managed by the USAID.

Officials said the Sindh government’s share was $10 million for the operation of Programme Mana­gement and Implementation Unit (PMIU) set up under a programme director who reported to secretary of education and literacy department.

Officials said that originally, the current completion date for the programme was September next year, but because of frequent delays the provincial government had prepared and got approved a PC-1 for the extension of the deadline to September 2018.

“The request for the extension of two years in the project’s duration is being sent shortly to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for approval,” said an official.

In its report to the Sindh government, the provincial education department said out of 120 schools to be reconstructed, 38 were already under construction in Khairpur, Sukkur, Larkana and Karachi. Another 46 schools, it said, were at design and tender stage.

The report said the surveying and geotechnical investigations of all the remaining schools were near completion. “It is expected that up to five schools will be ready within 2015. Average time for completion of a school is 18-20 months,” it added.

Out of $81 million grant, officials said, construction contracts worth $25 million had been signed by PMIU with the construction contractors in 2014. They expected that another $35-40 million worth contracts would be signed this year.

“USAID has so far remitted $10 million against which $3 million have been disbursed to the contractors,” said a compliance report to the government.

It admitted that overall programme’s physical progress was around 15pc against 20pc planned. Overall financial progress for the signed contracts was around 11pc.

With the activities of community mobilisation programme, officials said, there had been steady increase in the enrolment in the programme districts.

Almost 16,000 new students (9,000 boys and 7,000 girls) had been enrolled in these districts and almost 2,000 children had celebrated hand washing day, added officials.

The report said there were 3,000 teachers trained under Sindh Reading Program. Non-formal education strategy was close to finalisation. Supplementary teaching and reading material for 650 schools was being provided which contained 99 storybooks. Early grade reading assessment and early grade mathematical assessment baseline surveys have been completed, it added.

They said that dissemination of the surveys would be done in a couple of months. Mir Masoom Shah Library in Sukkur was being refurbished with about 5,500 books, two computers, a photocopier, scanner and internet connection for a year. The library had also been fumigated, they added.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2015

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