ISLAMABAD: The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has sought the law ministry’s guidance for implementing the cabinet’s decision of running school buses through the School Management Committee (SMC).

The federal cabinet in February this year had decided that FDE school buses would be run through the SMC on a cost-sharing basis. During PML-N’s tenure, the FDE had procured 200 buses for schools and colleges, however, funds were not allocated for fuel and drivers.

As a result, most buses remained un-operational as educational institutions were unable to utilise them. However, a couple of months ago, the federal cabinet decided that buses should be run through SMC.

But, sources said that the FDE wants to remove a legal hitch before implementing the decision. FDE officials said under Article 25-A of the Constitution, schools could not charge any fee from students from classes one to 10 however SMC can raise funds.

They said that FDE, after preparing bylaws in accordance with Article 25-A, has moved a summary to the Education Ministry for onward submission to the Law Ministry for their vetting. They said that as per these new bylaws, the FDE proposed that SMC could raise funds from parents for operation and maintenance of buses.

After the summary is approved, FDE will send it to the Cabinet Committee on Legislative Cases (CCLC) for its endorsement, sources said.

“Then, we will finally issue a notification to allow SMC to collect funds for paying salaries to drivers and pay against fuel and repair and maintenance of buses,” said a senior officer of the FDE.

It is relevant to note here that FDE under the Prime Minister’s Education Reforms programme, launched by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had procured 200 school buses, which had been distributed amongst 423 educational institutions of the FDE.

Initially, the buses were operated through daily-wage drivers and cleaners but that stopped due to shortage of funds. “Provision of buses to schools was a good project but necessary arrangements should have been made before procuring buses. Unfortunately, we have buses but don’t have funds for paying drivers and purchasing fuel. I have no idea, if SMC will be able to run these buses, as collection of funds from parents will be a difficult task,” said a teacher of a higher secondary school. In colleges, there will be no issue of collecting funds, but in schools, particularly those located in far-flung areas of the capital, it will be difficult for SMC to collect funds, as most students come from low income households, he added.

Earlier, Islamabad-based MNA of the ruling party Ali Nawaz Awan had also constantly raised the issue of parked school buses in various standing committees, urging the FDE and Education Ministry to take steps towards ensuring immediate operation of buses. He had pointed out that buses purchased against millions of rupees were standing in parking lots of schools since the past few years.

The issue was also highlighted on social media, which led the education ministry to approach the federal cabinet to come up with a solution. The cabinet then decided that buses should be run on cost-sharing through SMC.

It is relevant to note here that under the PM Education Reforms programme, besides procuring 200 buses, 200 schools were renovated and new classrooms were also constructed. However, sources said the said project is also still incomplete as work in 23 schools is yet to be finished.

Meanwhile, for the upcoming fiscal year, the FDE is also planning to launch a mega project worth over Rs6 billion to provide missing facilities in 189 institutions and four Area Education Offices.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2021