ISLAMABAD, Dec 21: The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) is spending Rs57.33 million on upgradation of its secondary and primary schools in the Capital territory.

According to official sources, the ongoing process aimed at reforming the educational system. The FDE is the controlling authority of all public sector schools in the Capital and its adjoining areas, and has around 500 institutions affiliated with it.

The sources said, in the first phase of the project, Rs39 million had been allocated for construction of toilets, compound walls, buildings for shelterless schools and provision of drinking water.

They said Rs11.2 million would be spent under this head during the current year.

In the second phase, they added, Rs18.33 million had been earmarked for provision of science equipment-apparatus to the secondary schools, both in urban and rural areas of the Capital. They said, Rs4 million would be spent this year under the head.

Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf had directed the provincial governments to identify the primary schools which required upgradation. The FDE was asked to conduct a similar exercise in the Capital.

The sources said the fund would be spent on the construction of two schools.

Cost of the land has not been included in the estimates, and the construction cost has been earmarked on the basis of approved Public Works Department’s rates of Rs485 per square feet.

Additional classrooms are being constructed in overcrowded primary schools. This has been necessitated due to increase in enrolment in the urban areas and shortage of classrooms in rural areas.

Under the project, 25 classrooms in five schools and toilet blocks in three schools would be built in the urban areas. Similarly, the FDE plans to construct 36 classrooms in 10 schools and toilet blocks in four schools of the adjoining rural areas.

The Directorate is also working on reforms to upgrade the qualifications of the teachers serving in the primary schools.—Zahra Syed