K-P to roll back smart school project

Under the Rs2b project, 200 container schools were to be built across the province

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to roll back its much-trumpeted smart school project under which 200 container schools were to be built across the province.

Only one smart school was built in Lakki Marwat district in August last year, after which the K-P Elementary and Secondary Education (E&SE) department dropped the project.

The provincial government had earmarked Rs2 billion in 2016-17 budget for the construction of containers schools.

E&SE Minister Atif Khan came under fire last year when a picture of him travelling to Lakki Marwat in a helicopter to inaugurate the school was circulated on social media.

In response to a question from PML-N lawmaker Sobia Shahid, the minister informed the K-P Assembly on Tuesday about the decision to drop the project.



“We have dropped the smart school project. They cannot stand the weather condition and they also have size issue and can’t handle more than 25 students,” he said, explaining the reasons for halting the project.

He informed the Assembly that they had discussed the issue with the National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK), asking them to build a model which could bear weather conditions of the province and occupy more students.

The minister was grilled throughout the session as majority of the questions were related to his department. The department’s policy of closing down primary schools across the province with enrolment less than 50 students was also criticised.

With schools being closed down, PML-N’s Sardar Aurangzeb Nalota questioned the government claims of launching education emergency in the province. He alleged that land was being grabbed by the owners of the property on which the schools were built without property transfer to the government.



Nalota accused the government of taking such steps to assist private schools, some of which are owned by government members.

In his response, the minister told the house the policy is to close down those schools “where the enrolment is less than 50 students and there exists no other school within two kilometres”.

He added that the government resources were being wasted in such schools and could be diverted to other schools.

“In the past, schools were built without any survey to check whether a school was needed there or not, and were meant for political gains,” he said, adding that his department made sure that the closure of the school had no effect on students.

He assured lawmakers that no compromise would be made on the education of the children.



Sharing his department’s performance, Khan claimed that 34,000 students switched from private schools to government schools in the past year.

“We are expecting the number to reach 100,000 students this year,” he said, adding that they had collected Rs190 million in fines from teachers who were not regular, and Rs160 million were distributed among good performing teachers as rewards.