RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) will be establishing and running colleges and the civic body will be constructing a model school and college complex in the first phase of this project.

And though Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) will be upgrading two of its schools, it has not yet devised a plan for establishing inter-colleges for boys and girls in the area that falls under its administrative control.

At present, the RCB is running five primary schools in wards one, four, five, eight and 10 and five schools fall under the jurisdiction of the CCB.

These primary schools could not get many residents to enrol their children as they do not offer free text books, like the 1,857 schools run by the Punjab government in the district do.

Up until the 70s, the cantonment boards ran primary and secondary schools in their respective areas but during the tenure of General Ziaul Haq, most of the schools were put under the control of the Federal Education Directorate.

RCB to establish educational complex including college, CCB to upgrade two of its five primary schools

The Military Lands and Cantonment has now devised a plan to improve the condition of schools in the Cantt areas, which are run by cantonment boards across the country.

A meeting of cantonment executive officers of Rawalpindi, Chaklala, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar was called in this regard by the Military Lands and Cantonment Director General Maj Gen Najumul Hassan.

During the meeting, it was decided that the cantonment boards will allocate five percent of its budget to education and eight percent for health facilities in the fiscal year 2017-18.

RCB spokesperson Qaiser Mehmood told Dawn that the board will be establishing a model educational complex and that two sites had been selected for the said complex, the first in Siham and the other at Bhatta Chowk.

There is already a cantonment school in Siham which needs to be reconstructed and the site at Bhatta Chowk is vacant land which was used as a land fill site and there had been plans for constructing a housing society on the site.

When the site for the complex is selected, a complex will be established which will also house the inter-college, which will gradually be upgraded.

Meanwhile, the CCB will be upgrading two schools, at Lalazar and Sabzazar, in order to provide better education facilities to the residents of cantonment areas.

CCB Vice President Raja Irfan Imtiaz told Dawn the board will be running five schools in wards and will be upgrading two of them.

“There is a need to establish a school in at least one of the 10 wards of the cantonment, and elected members will be bringing the issue up soon,’ he said.

He said a hospital was also needed in the Chaklala Cantonment and that the government should construct a 100 bed hospital and dispensaries in the area.

He said the elected members will soon be contacting the PML-N led provincial and federal governments in this regard.

Work on the project for upgrading educational institutes is dependent on funding from the provincial government and PML-N MNA Malik Abrar and MPA Malik Iftikhar have been asked for help regarding getting funds for the construction of building and the up gradation of existing facilities.

Published in Dawn November 21st, 2016