GUJRAT: Hundreds of high and higher secondary schools in Gujrat and Jhelum districts have been facing shortage of laboratory equipment and chemicals due to the non-issuance of the remaining installments of the Non-Salaried Budget (NSB) by the respective administrations.

However, the administration says the provincial finance department is yet to issue permission to this effect.

As many as 304 high and higher secondary schools in Gujrat and some 159 such schools in Jhelum district have been facing shortage of science lab equipment and chemicals due to the unavailability of the funds which had to be provided under NSB and its last installment was issued by the finance department on April 17, 2018 to the respective account of the district administration.

The Punjab government use to allocate a certain amount for all schools across the province as per the ratio of Rs1,000 per student every year under NSB. That amount fulfills school’s development and non-development expenses like utility bills, furniture, paint, repairing, extra teacher’s salary, lab equipment and many others.

The provincial government had allocated a sum of Rs14 billion for NSB for the fiscal year 2017-18 and released the amount through four quarterly installments of Rs3.5bn.

The last installment was released on April 17, 2018, and transferred to the accounts of education authorities of all the districts in the province.

Official sources said the share of high and higher secondary schools of Gujrat was around Rs46.88 million whereas Jhelum was to get around Rs21. 87m and the amounts were already shifted to the respective accounts.

However, they said the authorities in the districts did not release the funds as the finance department had stopped releasing the installment and now the authorities in the districts had been waiting for the green signal from the finance department in this regard.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2018