ISLAMABAD: School buses purchased under the Prime Minister’s Education Reforms Programme have yet to hit the capital’s streets because they have not been formally inaugurated.

The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has received 20 buses, currently parked at a college in H-8, that have not yet been formally inaugurated because the directorate is still waiting for a confirmation date from the Prime Minister’s Office, as the premier is likely to inaugurate the project.

The FDE received its first batch of five buses on Oct 19, and the total has now reached 20.

After the inauguration ceremony, the 20 buses will focus on rural areas in Islamabad, where there are currently no bus facilities for students. Of the total 422 educational institutions in the city, only 46 currently have facilities for transport.

The directorate will receive all 70 of the buses by the end of January 2017, as it is being provided 10 every fortnight by the manufacturer that won the contract in August to provide 70 buses for Rs490 million.

Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said: “We are hopeful the bus project will be inaugurated in the next week by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.”

He said the addition of the buses, and other initiatives being taken under the education reforms programme, will have a long lasting impact on public sector education. The minister said 130 more buses will be provided to education institutions in the next phase of the programme.

Sources said that of the 70 new buses, five will be provided to special education institutions, 40 to schools in rural areas and 25 to schools in urban areas.

Local education officers will be given three buses each to introduce common routes in their areas, giving students of various schools the chance to travel in the same bus.

The 63-seat buses will be equipped with refrigerators to provide clean drinking water; there will be a bar on the side windows for safety, three roof ventilators and a high speed obstructer.

Under the education reforms programme, the government announced plans to improve the physical infrastructure of schools and provide all the necessary facilities to students in all 422 educational institutions in the city. However, after renovating 22 schools, the government has yet to release funding to begin work on the next 200 schools.

Published in Dawn November 21st, 2016