Education reforms: Govt urged to complete school renovation process

Parents, students want standards in schools brought at par with private schools

ISLAMABAD: Parents and students living in the federal capital have urged the federal government to complete the process of renovating and physically upgrading public sector schools and colleges in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

During the tenure of the last government, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the government had launched a process of renovating and upgrading all 422 public sector educational institutions under the Prime Minister’s Education Reforms Programme (PMERP). The programme, launched in 2015, also saw the provision of some 130 new busses to the schools and colleges in the city.



The programme was supposed to have been completed in three phases before the term of the PML-N government ended. However, the government failed to do so and could barely complete two phases of the programme.

Renovation of some 200 schools and colleges, operating under the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), are still pending with work on the programme halted after the regime change in July.

Parents and students, while hailing the government’s vision of bringing uniform education system and providing quality education in the country, they urged the government to improve the standard of these schools and colleges to bring them at par with educational intuitions in the private sector as soon as possible.

Nasir Khan, the father of a student, lamented the poor condition of ICT schools and urged the government to pay special attention to schools in the federal capital.



"The falling standards of education in public sector educational institutions is alarming and creating panic for parents as they are unable to provide expensive education to their children in private sector schools," he added.

Another parent, Imdad Ali, said that the previous government failed to complete the education reforms programme during their five-year tenure. He added that the programme to renovate the remaining 200 schools and colleges in the city appeared to be in doldrums especially after the incoming government abolished the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD).  

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2019.