Rebuilding schools

Youth Senate of Pakistan to make 10 modular schools (each costing approximately Rs0.3 million) in flood-hit areas.

ISLAMABAD: When more than 3.5 million children lose access to education, one does not make lofty plans to reconstruct all of the 4500 schools lost in floods. Some consider it more pragmatic to start off with what little can be done and hope others would join in the effort.

This is what Youth Senate of Pakistan’s (YSP) Modular Village Schools hope to achieve.

Hanan Ali Abbasi, YSP chairperson, told The Express Tribune that they aimed to facilitate the government in its rehabilitation efforts for the flood-affected areas.

The recent devastating floods have completely destroyed school buildings in Nowshera, Charsadda, Muzaffargarh, Mianwali, Raheem Yar Khan, Kohistan, Badeen, Sukkur, Thatta and Jaffarabad.

Under the project, YSP will make 10 modular schools (each costing approximately Rs0.3 million) in different flood-hit areas.

A modular building is made up of prefabricated blocks that are built in a remote facility and then transported to the site of their intended use. There they are assembled together into a single building.

The school buildings, said Abbasi, will follow international standards of building codes and will also be furnished.

“Presently the government is in no position to provide education to children in the flood-hit areas. We will hand these schools over to the Ministry of Education to help them [revive schools in these areas],” Abbasi added.

More than 500 students will be benefit from this batch of schools, according to Abbasi.

YSP plans to rehire teachers, rendered jobless after the floods, to run these schools. Their salaries will be managed by the government, while YSP will monitor the project in coordination with the school administrations, local district governments and donors’ representatives.

“Being privileged, it is our prime responsibility to support the generation whose future is at stake,” Abbasi said.

Funds for the project have been arranged entirely by the Youth Senate of Pakistan through its members within the country and abroad.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2010.