School plantation drive lags

Government schools in several districts have failed to achieve the tree plantation targets.

According to sources, the authorities in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Chakwal, Gujrat, Narowal and several other districts ignored the Punjab School Education Department's instructions to launch tree plantation as part of the provincial government's efforts to curb pollution.

The department has asked the chief executive officers (CEOs) of all district education authorities to immediately submit the data of tree plantation in their areas.

The ambitious plan of the Punjab government to plant trees in more than 50,000 public sector schools across the province appears to have failed due to poor management.

Sources in the department said authorities in the education ministry could not ensure monitoring and motivation of the government school heads and students regarding the importance of the plantation.

An official of the school education department said the launching of the tree plantation campaign had been announced in January when the province was facing high levels of pollution.

The school heads and students initially showed enthusiasm in the tree plantation campaign but senior officials in the department and ministry did not monitor its progress and now there are reports that the initiative has not succeeded in a number of districts.

The official said the department had assigned the task of plantation to the school heads and students but not followed up the campaign.

He said unavailability of plants in several districts and lack of spare land in many schools had hampered the campaign.

The campaign failed in several districts because the posts of gardeners in the department had been vacant. Their absence also resulted in the wastage of a large number of plants because of lack of proper care and delay in the plantation in schools.

The official. said the education ministry had remained unaware of the problems faced in the plantation campaign.

It has come to light at the time of the evaluation of the whole exercise that the plantation targets have been missed badly in Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Gujrat, Narowal, Multan, Kasur and even Lahore, the official added.

An official of the education ministry said schools department had asked the CEOs of all district education authorities to immediately submit data of the tree plantation.