ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: The ministry of education has acquired the services of Pakistan army to undertake reconstruction, repair and refurbishment of all government-run schools in the country.

The army engineering corps had been engaged under the Rs100 billion President Education Sector Reforms (PESR) project to build lacking infrastructural facilities of schools, Education Minister Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi said while speaking at a function here on Thursday.

“For effective utilisation of funds and timely completion of task, the ministry has decided to engage army engineers to provide missing facilities at schools in the entire country,” the minister said.

According to the National Education Census held recently by the education ministry, nearly 38 per cent public sector institutions were without boundary wall, 32 per cent with no drinking water facility, over 50 per cent without electricity, 41 per cent without washrooms and seven per cent without any building.

Under the plan, each engineering unit will be assigned two districts to identify schools without basic amenities. The PESR was launched in 2002, but remained ineffective owing to a delay in the release of funds by the finance division, provinces’ incapacity to implement the reforms, and lack of coordination between the federal and provincial governments, an education ministry official said.

The idea behind the PESR was to put systematic attention to different areas of education, such as rehabilitation of physical facilities, support to multiple delivery systems, private sector involvement, improvement in literacy, teacher training, assessment and examination reforms, professional development of field managers, linking education to skills, research and research incentives, decentralisation of services and institutional strengthening, etc.

The construction of various facilities like labs, classrooms, boundary walls, washrooms, play grounds and libraries is one component of the reforms agenda, the official said. Previously, the departments of Public Works and Communication and Works were responsible for maintaining government and school buildings.