The Prime Minister’s Education Reforms Programme, an initiative to improve the physical infrastructure and education standards of the capital’s public schools, is facing delays in its execution.

The programme was initiated by the prime minister in December 2015, but has yet to go beyond the upgrading of 22 schools and the provision of 70 school buses.

Officials from the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) and Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) have expressed fears that if special attention is not given and the current pace of the programme continues, the physical infrastructure of Islamabad’s 422 educational institutions will be not be improved during the tenure of the current government.

An FDE official said the programme has not moved beyond the first 22 schools even though it began 15 months ago.

He said when efforts are made to complete the work at the 11th hour, the quality of work could be compromised.

“The government’s seriousness can be measured by the fact that there has not been a director general of the FDE for many months,” the official added. The official said the programme is worth over Rs4 billion, and if the money is utilised carefully there could be significant change in the capital’s education sector.

The federal government has already allocated over Rs2.5 billion to upgrade 200 schools, and in the next change the remaining 200 schools will be upgraded.

CADD, so far, has not begun the process to hire new teachers.

When contacted, CADD’s adviser on the reforms programme, Ali Raza, said things are being finalised to begin work on the physical improvement of 200 schools. “Once things are finalised, such as the formation of the project management unit etc, the project of 200 schools will be finalised in 150 days,” he said.

Mr Raza added that a project director for the programme and an FDE director general would be appointed soon.

CADD has decided not to engage the services of the Capital Development Authority and the Public Works Department – government-run development agencies – and a new unit is being formed at CADD to supervise the multi-billion rupee project.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2017