Govt starts building its own Cambridge school

A total of 25 schools will be built in the province, imparting education free of charge.

KARACHI: Two years after the Sindh government announced the budget for the establishment of schools based on the Cambridge system, construction has finally begun on eight such schools.

A total of 25 schools will be built in the province at an estimated cost of Rs3.7 billion. Tenders have been awarded for eight of these schools, while construction on the remaining will start by next month. Officials have estimated that the schools will be built within eight to 10 months. "One school will be constructed in each district," said project director Sattar Jatoi. "We are putting all efforts to start the operations of these schools by next year."

An important feature of the project is that the Sindh government will bear all the education expenses, providing free education from pre-school till O' Levels. "We have estimated expenses of Rs15,000  for each student per month," said Jatoi. "Syllabus being taught at Cambridge schools across Pakistan will be used here and exams will be conducted online."

According to the project director, construction of the schools had started in Jamshoro, Sujawal, Badin, Benazirabad, Sanghar, Khairpur, Naushero Feroz and Sukkur. In the next phase, he added, schools will be built in Ghotki, Thatta, Hyderabad, Larkana, Tando Muhammad Khan, Matiari, Tando Allahyar, Mirpurkhas, and Umerkot.

Jatoi said that teachers will be appointed through the National Testing Service test.

The budget for these English-medium schools was announced about two years ago but, due to administrative and political issues, work could not start on the project.

The government also promised to establish cadet colleges in various districts. But, even after three years, this scheme has yet to materialise.  Education secretary Fazlullah Pechuho was of the view that there were some technical problems which had delayed initiating the schemes. He added that the issues have been resolved and work on the cadet colleges will be started soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2015.