KARACHI, Oct 14: An amount of Rs150 million, released recently by the Sindh government for refurbishment of government schools, is in the process of execution through the school management committees, comprising headmasters, parents and notable of the areas.

The District Coordination Officer (DCO), Karachi, Shafiqur Rehman Paracha, visited various schools in the city on Monday along with EDO (education) Prof Rais Alavi and Col Mohammad Azam, incharge army monitoring cell, to review the ongoing renovation works in these institutions.

Mr Paracha took serious notice of poor cleanliness and sanitary conditions at the R.P. Dabari Government Urdu Boys School, operating within the Fazlur Rehman campus in Artillery Maidan area.

A major part of the school was found turned into a garbage dump, while discarded furniture occupied additional portion of the institution. There was no lighting arrangements in one of the classrooms.

The DCO particularly expressed his concern about the plight of students and directed for immediate arrangement for light in all dimly-lit classrooms to protect the eye sight of the students.

He, however, appreciated the fact that the BMB school in Fazlur Rehman campus was well-kept and white-washing was also being carried out in various rooms and arrangements were underway for repair of furniture.

Later on, the DCO presided over a meeting of assistant district officers, associated with the education department of the city government, and discussed the execution of school management committee fund.

He underscored the need for an efficient and fool-proof system for disbursement and application of the fund through set procedures.

For this purpose, he suggested that requirements of each school regarding furniture, white washing and lighting be prioritized accordingly.

He urged the concerned ADOs to provide necessary guidance to the concerned headmasters.

On the occasion, it was decided that to improve the working of the recently-founded school management committees, workshops be arranged in each of the towns and that a cell be established in the education department to make the exercise meaningful and largely beneficial for the students.

Establishment of a computer division was also agreed upon during the meeting to ensure computerization of relevant data and amount disbursed and utilized by each government school.

The meeting also agreed to meet on a fortnightly basis and review the progress made under the project.—APP