Universal enrolment: Most schools set to get missing facilities

The amount allocated for missing facilities to be released in 4 instalments of around Rs1.875 billion, the SED said.

LAHORE:

The School Education Department (SED) had allocated Rs7.5 billion earlier this year to provide missing facilities at schools. Rs1.8 billion out of the amount was released earlier this month and the SED believes that the rest will be released towards the end of this year.

The SED had announced the allocation in July. The department says that the entire allocation for providing schools facilities could be released by December- within four months of the first instalment being released.

Budget and Planning Deputy Secretary Qaiser Rasheed said that the funds released will be used to provide toilets, boundary walls, drinking water and electricity at schools where these have been lacking. Essential furniture will also be provided at schools that don’t have it, he said.

According to the SED, the amount allocated for missing facilities will be released in four instalments of approximately Rs1.875 billion.

However, the department’s record of release and utilisation of funds paints a different picture. According to official figures, of the Rs15 billion allocated for development of schools in 2012-2013, only Rs 6.5 billion was released by the end of the year.

Funds released in 2013-2014 were not available for comparison, but figures provided by the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences indicate that of the Rs15.5 billion allocated for development of schools this year, Rs1.8 billion was released in the first quarter. A similar amount, the SED says, was released for missing facilities in September.

Rasheed said that the timely release of funds for missing facilities as a step in the right direction. “This will help the department track the performance of schools,” he said.

The project primarily focuses on girls’ schools. However, the SED said that it also planned to provide missing facilities at boys’ schools in south Punjab.

Rasheed said that 32 per cent of the students in the province were from south Punjab. Almost 40 per cent of the amount (Rs7.5 billion) will be reserved for 11 districts in south Punjab, he said. “There is greater need for funds and facilities in these schools,” he said.

Rasheed said that the department had prioritised schools in the southern district in its Emergency Enrolment Campaign. He said that they would try to address the problems of enrolment and retention of students, both of which are affected by the absence of basic facilities in schools.

According to the Programme Monitoring and Implementation Unit, 73 per cent of schools in the province had the required facilities in September 2011. The number rose to 89.7 per cent the next year. The record for December 2012 shows that almost 90.9 per cent schools in the province now had the facilities. The PMIU took into account the availability of drinking water, boundary walls, toilets and electricity while compiling the data.

However, in a recent analysis of data in the Punjab, the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences claimed that almost 42 per cent of schools in the province were without electricity and another 18.9 per cent did not have boundary walls.

Almost 11,600 schools in 36 districts were without electricity. More than 800 schools in Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalnagar were without electricity.

The same districts have had poor figures with regard to the absence of boundary walls- more than 5,500 schools in the province. The ISAPS report also noted that almost 2,500 schools in the Punjab did not have toilets and more than 1,100 schools did not have drinking water available.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2013.