KARACHI: The Sindh education department with the funding of World Bank has launched a Rs2 billion project to provide missing facilities in 10,000 schools and presently work is under way for provision of such facilities in 300 schools, which will be completed by the end of June 2016.

This was stated at a meeting chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on development schemes of the education department here at CM House on Wednesday.

Senior Minister for Education Nisar Khuhro, principal secretary to the CM Alamuddin Bullo, education secretary Fazal Pechuho, additional chief secretary (development) Mohammad Waseem, finance secretary Sohail Rajput and others attended the meeting.

The chief minister directed the education department to take necessary measures to provide missing facilities in schools, particularly washrooms and compound walls, immediately.

“Under the security plan of schools compound walls are the most important,” he said and asked the education minister to personally keep visiting development schemes of the department to ensure their quality and in time work.

Earlier Senior Minister for Education Nisar Khuhro said that in the first phase, the education department had taken up 1,600 schools to provide them with missing facilities of washrooms, compound walls, drinking water, etc. “We are going to provide facilities to 300 schools by the end of June 2016,” he said.

Giving presentation to the chief minister, education secretary Fazal Pechuho said that the education department had launched a project with the assistance of the World Bank for Rs2 billion. There were 10,000 schools which lacked basic facilities like washrooms, compound walls, drinking water and such other facilities, he added.

Besides missing facilities project Mr Pechuho also mentioned six different subsectors where the department was working on Rs10 billion development schemes.

They are elementary education which has 24 schemes of Rs768.13 million; teachers education with seven schemes of Rs152 million; Sindh Education Foundation - three schemes of Rs512.5 million, Secondary Education has 66 schemes of Rs4.6 billion; college education has 54 schemes for Rs2,376.577 million and 41 miscellaneous schemes of Rs1.5 billion.

He said that the education department would complete 16 schemes by the end of June 2016, which included establishment of the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto College of Education for Rs178 million, construction of auditorium, compound wall and water supply scheme at Cadet College Petaro for Rs163.4 million, and reconstruction of Commerce & Arts Block in exiting Government College (Men) Nazimabad for Rs74.5 million.

On the elementary education side, the schemes to be completed by the end of year 2015-16 are rehabilitation of existing schools damaged by heavy rains in district Larkana for Rs56.13 million and construction of one additional classroom in existing three primary schools of district Kashmore for Rs8.5 million.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2016