PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa elementary and secondary education department has planned to establish 1,000 community schools in the province for primary education as a stopgap measure until educational institutions are established in the requisite number.

Such schools to be set up in three years at a cost of Rs1 billion will primarily target out-of-school children and provide them with education on their doorstep, according to the relevant officials.

Around 250 community primary schools have been functioning in different parts of the province since 2005.

An official told Dawn that the proposed community schools would be established in the areas, where there were no government educational institutions.

New primary schools in KP to have six rooms, six teachers

He said thousands of children were out of school due to the absence of government primary schools in their respective areas.

The official said many people in such areas were too poor to send their children to private schools if there were any.

Official says Rs1 billion initiative to target out-of-school children

Another official said most of the 1,000 proposed community primary schools were for girls as the department wanted to encourage more and more girls to get education.

“This will help end gender disparity among students enrolled in government and private schools,” he said.

According to the official, the areas, where the number of out-of-school children is very low, will be preferred for the establishment of such educational institutions.

He said the Elementary Education Foundation (EFF) would execute the three years project and manage the related matters.

“The EFF has been running 250 community primary schools in the province since 2005,” he said.

When asked about the nature and building of the community primary schools, the official said the local community would provide building comprising a few rooms for the establishment of such educational institutions, while the government would appoint teachers to them.

He also said the government would provide free textbooks to such schools and would bear the expenses for items to be used in classrooms, including blackboards, carpets or jute mats, chalks etc.

The official said all the 1,000 community schools would be made operational in a period of four or five months though the construction of primary schools usually took two to three years to complete.

He said if the government wanted to build 1,000 regular primary schools, it would take around 12 years.

“The construction of a six-room primary school costs more than Rs12 million if either the land is offered by the relevant people or the school is built on government land,” he said.

The official said the cost went up if the government had to buy land.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2014