Public-private partnerships: FDE mulls handing two schools to PEN

Official says they visited schools of the network in Lahore and will now send a report to the ministry

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to improve the quality of instruction and facilities in government schools of the federal capital, the government is working on a proposal to hand over two schools in the rural areas to a private education network under public-private partnerships.

The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), though, is still doing its homework on the move.

The decision came into consideration after a delegation of the FDE travelled to Lahore to review an ongoing project in this regard.

FDE Director General Ali Ahmed Kharal, who led the delegation, said that under the public-private partnership programme, they will send a report to the federal education ministry on giving schools of the city to private managers.

Initially, the FDE intended to allow as many as 12 schools to be uplifted under the public-private partnership programme. The FDE had intended to give the schools to Mawan Foundation. But then the Progressive Education Network (PEN) expressed its keenness to provide facilities at FDE’s schools.

In this regard, a delegation of the FDE, including officials from its quality enhancement cell, travelled to Lahore on Saturday, January so that it could get a closer look at how PEN was handling the schools in its care.

The FDE delegation was briefed by PEN’s Chief Executive Officer Dr Najeeb.

Sources say that under the public-private partnership programme, the government will ask private partners to help with collaborating on teacher training and infrastructure development.

Moreover, schools will be provided with water filtration plants, solar power systems, equipped with computer and science labs apart from the renovation of playgrounds.

In light of the tour and what the FDE officials saw PEN doing in Lahore, the officials have decided in-principle to hand over schools in union councils four and five of Bara Kahu to of PEN.

Sources said that the performance of these schools has been unsatisfactory while the number of students enrolled there are lower than the mean number of children enrolled in the capital’s schools.

Kharal told Daily Express that the reason for starting the public-private programme was to improve the facilities at government schools. Moreover, he said that they have reached out to the trading community of each sector to step up take responsibilities of educational institutions in their respective areas.

PEN is among the largest school and college networks of the country with some 227 educational institutions spread over 13 cities of Punjab and Sindh including metropolises such as Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad.

They claim to have over 50,000 students enrolled in these educational institutions.

However, the network per their own claim does not have any footprint in Islamabad or Rawalpindi though there are some schools called progressive in the federal capital.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2019.