CM wants flood-wrecked schools rebuilt

Shah asks education minister to personally monitor reconstruction/repair work

KARACHI:

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday ordered the Education and Literacy Department to complete the reconstruction of 3,328 schools out of 19,808 damaged or destroyed by the 2022 floods by the end of this fiscal year.

Massive floods had caused widespread devastation in several parts of the country in 2022, killing 1,700 people, affecting 33 million people, destroying infrastructure, washing away swathes of agricultural land, and inflicting economic losses worth $30 billion, according to government estimates.

Balochistan and Sindh had borne the brunt of the mammoth deluge.

While chairing a review meeting of the School Education Department at the Chief Minister's House, CM Shah was told that out of 19,808 schools, reconstruction and repair of 3,328 under different projects have either been started or are in the tender process.

The chief minister directed the education minister to "personally monitor the construction work so that these schools could be reconstructed by the end of June 2025."

He was further told that the repair work of 1,769 schools and the reconstruction of 1,559 school buildings have been taken up under 10 different local and foreign-assisted projects with Rs114.3 billion.

They include the SSEIP (flood-assisted) project under which 1,026 schools will be repaired/reconstructed at the cost of Rs62.6 billion. Tenders for the project have been issued. The repair and reconstruction of 31 schools under SSEIP (regular) have been taken up for Rs4 million and work on them is in progress.

Under the SELECT project, 166 schools will be reconstructed for which tenders have already been floated, while 111 schools are under construction for Rs2.44 billion under the DEEP project.

Under the ASPIRE project, four schools are under construction at a cost of Rs112.7 billion.

China has given a grant of Rs7.6 billion for the reconstruction of 100 schools and the scheme is in the approval process.

Under the PSDP tenders for repair/reconstruction of 456 schools have been floated at a cost of Rs10.7 billion. JIACA has also given Rs419.38 million to repair and reconstruct five schools for which bids are under evaluation.

Under the ADP repair/reconstruction of 687 schools is in progress for Rs7.89 billion. Through Maintenance & Repair, 742 schools are being repaired at a cost of Rs3 billion and work is in progress.

Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah informed the chief minister that 824,008 children were enrolled in the 3,328 schools damaged by the floods. CM Shah directed the School Education Department to keep visiting the schools where repair work has been started or would be taken up to review their educational activities.

The School Education Department has developed a dashboard that reflects all 40,978 schools and their 5,219,784 enrolments. It also shows the 19,808 damaged schools, including 7,503 completely damaged.

The dashboard has also the ability to track the development works carried out on the ground and even the process of procurement, tendering stage, and approval process.

The chief minister directed the School Education Department to complete the construction work of the 3,328 school buildings by the end of the current financial year. Meanwhile, CM Shah said that he would arrange funds for the remaining 16,480 schools so that they could also be repaired/reconstructed.