LAYYAH: Private owners will on Wednesday (today) take over 13 government-run schools in the district out of the 46 offered for privatisation under a Punjab government initiative.

The Punjab government’s school education department had short listed some 5,000 public schools to be offered to willing private parties in the province through the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and other partners.

So far some 1,000 schools have been privatised under the initiative aimed at improving school education.

As per government directions, the district education authorities had short listed 46 schools for privatisation after the students of these institutions performed poorly in Class V and Class VIII examinations.

Out of these, only 13 could be privatised as no private party had shown interest in owning the remaining 33 schools for various reasons.

According to official record, two boys and 11 girls primary schools were privatised in the district.

Under the scheme, the PEF will pay Rs550 per student per month to the owners of these schools. The government has decided to pay six months’ fees of 150 students to each school in advance that totals up to Rs495,000 per school. According to regional coordinator of Alif Ailaan, Syed Niaz Ahmad Shah Gilani, the scheme was aimed at curtailing the education development budget.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2016