To enrol out-of-school children, capital first eyes more schools

FDE official says planning division sent a summary to approve funds for the overhaul of existing schools

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to accommodate the large number of out-of-school students in the federal capital, which has seen its population more than double in the past 20 years, the city’s apex education authority has decided to set up new educational institutions in the city.

The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has decided in-principal to expand the project of establishing three new model colleges and six schools.

Talking to APP, an official of the FDE said that work on overhauling existing schools and colleges in the federal capital will also be resumed.



For this purpose, he said that a summary has been sent to the planning division for approval.

The official said that the project would help to achieve the target for enrolling the out-of-school children under the new educational policy of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government.

"Last year, several students could not get admissions into government schools due to a lack of space, however; with the establishment of new institutions, more children would be able to benefit from public sector institutions," he remarked.

"The first [new] model college will be established in Margalla Town, while the second will be in Sector G-13, and the third in Sector G-14,” the FDE official said.

The official further dilated that out of these, one college will be dedicated to girls while the remaining two will be for boys.

Under the project, new classrooms, water projects and washrooms will also be built, the official added.

The establishment of new educational institutions was the need of the hour to address the rising population of the federal capital and for the complete implementation of the new educational policy launched by the government, the official said.



The population of the federal capital more than doubled from 805,235 in 1998 to 2.07 million in the recent census, showing an annual growth rate of 4.91 per cent.

The census noted that the federal capital comprised over 336,182 households of which 170,936 are located in urban areas while 165,248 are in rural areas.  The census results showed that the rural areas of the federal capital had shown the highest annual growth rate of 6.95 per cent. Indeed, from the 276,055 people living in the rural areas of ICT, the population had more than tripled to 991,747. The FDE official said that they would start work on the project as soon as the funds for it are approved.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2019.