LAHORE:
Almost half of the budgetary allocation for development programmes in the school sector has been released to district governments four months into the current fiscal year.
Government officials say the money will be used to improve schooling infrastructure in the province. The government had allocated Rs15.7 billion for the purpose in the 2014-2015 budget.
By the second week of October, Rs7.8 billion had been released to districts under various heads, according to officials from the School Education Department (SED).
Deputy Secretary Qaiser Rasheed says district authorities will now identify schemes in accordance with the criteria set against each development allocation. Rs8 billion has been allocated for providing missing facilities, including drinking water, electricity, toilets, furniture and boundary walls.
Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Layyah, Lodhran, Multan, Okara, Rajanpur, Sialkot, Vehari and Sargodha will get Rs260 million to Rs340 million a district. Rasheed says this is the second time Rs7.5 billion or more has been reserved in a year for providing missing facilities at schools.
“Almost 80 per cent of missing facilities have been provided,” Rasheed said.
Half of the Rs2.75 billion allocated for the renovation of school buildings categorised as dangerous has also been released.
According to the SED, the largest allocation for taking care of dangerous school buildings is Rs302 million for Lahore followed by Rs192 million for Rahim Yar Khan. Seven other districts have been allocated Rs110 million each for the purpose.
The next highest allocation, Rs1.8 billion, is for upgrading primary and elementary schools to the next level. The focus is upgrading girls’ schools and the union councils where there are no girls’ high schools. Of the Rs1.8 billion, Rasheed says Rs900 million has been released.
SED officials say Rs7 million will be spent on upgrading primary schools to elementary level and Rs11 million on upgrade to high schools.
Major allocations under the head will be for Kasur, Lahore, Muzaffargarh, Narowal, Okara, Rahim Yar Khan and Sialkot.
Other development heads include provision of 1,000 IT laboratories at secondary and elementary schools with large enrollment.
Of the Rs1 billion set aside for high schools, district administrations have been instructed to spend Rs1.4 million on a laboratory each. More than 700 laboratories are being set up at high schools.
For elementary schools, districts have been asked to spend Rs0.5 million on each laboratory. Rs250 million will be spent on the provision of 500 such laboratories.
Rasheed says that while release of funds for development has improved over the years, the capacity to ensure timely utilisation of the funds remains a challenge. “There is a need for improving the capacity of the district officers to ensure delivery,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 19th, 2014.
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Money wasted. Think of all of the laptops that could have been bought and distributed by Maryam Nawaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz Sharif. Maryam is always exhorting the people to work harder(she is a good example to follow, having worked hard to reach where she is)