ISLAMABAD: The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) is optimistic about receiving funds in the upcoming budget for its mega project, aimed at provision of basic facilities in 189 educational institutions of the federal capital.

A senior officer of FDE said that the project, ‘Provision of basic educational facilities in educational institutions of ICT’ worth Rs6.9 billion will be placed before the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) after Eid for approval.

The officer said that earlier CDWP had raised some objections on the proposed PC-1.

A working paper of FDE said: “Project was prepared keeping in view the fact that FDE has mostly retained educational institutions handed over from the government of Punjab in 1973 and 1985.”

A substantial portion of these buildings is in a dilapidated condition requiring rehabilitation on a priority basis to ensure safety of the students in a conducive environment for quality education.

Whereas annual repair and maintenance of buildings is a recurring feature of civil work, there are no funds allocated to schools/colleges of FDE to maintain their physical infrastructure.

It is only the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) which meets the infrastructural needs of institutions be it the rehabilitation of existing facilities or construction of new structures.

“The CDWP while approving the project has observed to amend the PC-I by adding existing inventory of facilities, services and infrastructure, estimation of schools with IT facilities, proposal for PMU & Project Director, and maintenance system.

“Also, the bill of quantities of each school/college was re-assessed in consultation with Pak-PWD, AEOs and heads of the schools which now caps the total estimated cost at Rs6803.527 and the number of institutions at 170. A revised/ amended PC-I was accordingly submitted to M/o FE&PT for placement before the relevant forum to allocate funds during the current financial year,” the paper said.

Meanwhile, FDE officials said that the ongoing project, Prime Minister’s Education Reform Programme, which was started in 2017 for uplifting of 200 schools will be completed to a major extent by the end of this fiscal year.

They said out of the total Rs1,100 million fund, Rs800 million were earmarked for this financial year and FDE will spend most of these funds this year to move the project towards end.

They said for the upcoming fiscal year, remaining Rs300 million will likely be earmarked by the federal government to complete the project. Partial work is pending in 23 schools out of 200, the official said.

Meanwhile, the officer said recently the Development Working Party of Ministry of Education has approved PC-1 of two projects (computer lab project worth Rs574 million and introduction of early childhood education in FDE schools worth Rs585 million), whose funding will be secured in the upcoming budgets.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2021