LAHORE, Jan 10: The government's move to start intermediate evening classes at the government colleges has reduced by 25 per cent the enrolment of students in the institutions under the Community Partnership Projects (CPP).

This was stated by the CPP (Monitoring and Evaluation Cell) director Muhammad Jamil Najam while talking to Dawn here on Saturday.

The government, he said, did not take the CPP officials into confidence while introducing intermediate evening classes in the government colleges.

The students, especially of urban areas, preferred to study in the government colleges as compared to the CPP institutions.

The government's move may prove detrimental for the implementation of the CPP at the intermediate level in the province, Mr Najam said.

The Punjab government had last year directed all the colleges to start evening classes to accommodate students who could not be admitted in the morning session.

At present, around 40,000 students are enrolled in the CPP institutions at the intermediate level across the province. Besides, some 39,000 are admitted in the primary and secondary level.

The executive district officers (EDOs) throughout the province are responsible for monitoring the Community Model Schools. But none of them reportedly ever visited any community model school.

The CPP was launched in May 2001 and so far over 6,890 schools have been established under the project in the Punjab. The number of girl's community model schools are double to the number of boy's schools at the primary and elementary level whereas in secondary classes their number is almost equal.

Around 80,000 students are studying in the community model schools and colleges. Of them, 70 per cent are girls. A sum of Rs200 to Rs300 per month is being charged monthly from each student.

Some 1,900 computer laboratories have so far been established in the community schools. Of them, some 1,000 are functional.

Those eligible to run community model schools are NGOs, trusts, organization, public or private companies, partners or individuals.

The government provides them school building, furniture and fixtures, science laboratory and library, free Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education's affiliation for five years and regular status of afternoon students.

NGOs or the private parties, on the other hand, have to pay utility bills both for the morning and evening classes, contribute 10 per cent of its gross income to the Farogh-i-Taleem Fund (FTF) set up by the government for the establishment of computer laboratories and to organize teachers training programmes.

Meanwhile, the managements of the NGOs running community model elementary and secondary schools often complain that they are hardly meeting their expenses. They also complain about the morning session administration staff for creating problems for them.

They say that free availability of utilities encourages the morning staff to misuse it. Besides, they have problems like the migration of the CPP students in regular higher and secondary schools and colleges, non-cooperative attitude of field officers (EDOs and DEOs) and non-availability of financial assistance from the Punjab Education Foundation.

No training is provided to their teachers as well, they add.

Differences surfaced between some of the NGOs and the education department with reference to the agreement. Some of them, mostly Lahore organizations, have reportedly filed 15 cases with a court of law against the department on such issues.

The department's recent move to charge endowment fund from the NGOs running community model schools have sparked criticism.

The community model institutions union's president Shabbir Hussain claimed that the endowment was not part of the agreement.

According to the agreement, he said, the government could not demand any new charges for five years.

However, Mr Najam claimed that the endowment fund was a security fee and refundable.