‘Improve public school standards to exemplary levels’

Senate panel urges FDE to improve standard of government schools

ISLAMABAD: A sub-committee of Senate Standing Committee For Education and Professional Training told the Federal Directorate of Education to improve the standards of public schools to such a level that people brinbg their children there from private institutions.

The meeting held its session with convener Rana Maqbool in the chair. Speaking at the panel, convener committee Rana Maqbool maintained that public schools in Islamabad should exhibit such improvements that people start shifting their children from private schools to government schools.

There is a dire need to monitor federal government schools, he said, urging on the need for supervisory tours at public schools

Speaking at the session, Senator Ruksana Zubairi proposed that federal government schools should administer various vocational trainings to their children in summer camps. In foreign countries, children look after the safety and cleanliness of their schools on their own.

Committee convener Rana Maqbool asked the authorities to ensure positive results within a month. We give five weeks to federal education ministry and federal directorate of education, he warned, demanding the authorities to show such performance that people are compelled to shift their children from private schools to government schools.

Additional Secretary for Education told the committee that madrassa reforms and changes in the national curriculum will give rise to an educational revolution in the forthcoming times. “How good it would be if doctors and engineers are Hafiz Quran as well,” the official said.

Convener Rana Maqbool took serious note of the dilapidated building structures of federal government schools in Islamabad. Just days ago, a faulty and failing building structure claimed life of a child at a public school. Who is to blame for the child’s death? There are many schools with buildings as old as 50 years. Responding to the question, FDE officials maintained that PWD has been asked to upgrade and renovate such schools. A budget of Rs1.364 billion was earmarked in PSDP in this regard. Convener Rana Maqbool asked the officials to identify if any department was showing slackness so that its officials could be summoned.

The members of the committee also observed that there were complaints that washrooms of some public schools had not been cleaned for the past six months. There is dire need to monitor the situation of federal government schools.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2019.