KARACHI, Jan 9: The Sindh government will extend all possible assistance in the provision of the best possible educational facilities for the children of the shiftees of the Lyari Expressway Rehabilitation Project.

This assurance was held out by Additional Chief Secretary (Development), Ghulam Sarwar Khehro, at a meeting of the officers associated with the project here on Sunday to review the provision of educational facilities for the children of families being shifted to Taiser Town rehabilitation site.

The additional chief secretary was informed that so far 6,000 families had taken possession of their plots at the rehabilitation site and half of them had completed their houses and started living there.

He was told that for providing educational facilities, three schools had been opened in which over 1,500 children were studying, while work on four more schools was continuing.

However, more schools would be needed to attain the target of providing education to every child of shifted families and the goal could only be achieved through joint efforts of the government and the NGOs.

Mr Khehro was informed that immediate start of work to increase the number of schools would be possible only through government resources. He was told that The Citizens Foundation would establish five model schools at the rehabilitation site. Work on two schools will be completed before the start of new academic year in March.

Similarly, construction of two more schools will also be completed before the start of new academic session. However, more schools will still be required to provide education to every child of shifted families.

Mr Khehro said that detailed proposals in this regard should be immediately prepared and forwarded to the provincial government through the city government. He said that additional classrooms should be constructed wherever necessary. If needed such schemes could be included in the annual development programme. - APP