Funding follies: Education not a priority for Kotli Sattian’s representatives

High school building is only half built despite being two years past its deadline

KOTLI SATTIAN: Pakistan was supposed to attain eight millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015 including the provision of universal primary education. The deadline is long gone, but 25 million children are still out of school. Majority of schools in rural areas lack proper facilities.

One such school is in Kotli Sattian, an impoverished tehsil of the Rawalpindi District, located 62km from the capital city.

Hundreds of children in the Karor Union Council in Kotli Sattian Tehsil are among the deprived as the construction of Government Higher Secondary School for Boys has not been completed for the past four years.

Federal Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had pledged to provide Rs25 million for the school in 2011. A tender was floated in 2012.

The school building was supposed to be completed within two years, but construction work ran into funding issues, even though Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had approved funds for the two-storey building at Abbasi’s request.

Till 2012, only Rs13 million was released, with which around 50 per cent of work has been completed. The second floor, doors, lights, fans, water, and sanitation, have yet to be installed.

District Coordination Office (DCO) had issued Rs9 million for provision of the missing facilities in 2012, and the provincial government had released Rs4.1 million for the construction of the basic structure of the school.

Parents and children have urged the federal minister, the chief minister and education official to take notice of the delay.

They also threatened to hold protest demo if the remaining funds were not released to expedite work on the project.

Muhammad Shahbaz, a local resident, said that sending his children to private schools is not affordable and that their hopes of seeing a higher secondary school in the areas seemed to be fading.

Other local residents, including Sardar Bilal, Haji Muhammad Anwar, Sardar Ziaullah and Hamid Sultan, held the district education authority and local politicians responsible for delays in the project.

On the other hand, the district education officer said the project was MNA Abbasi’s brainchild and he had taken special approval from the chief minister to build it.

The official said that Rs13 million more would be required to complete the remaining work, adding that a request has been sent to the provincial government.

The contractor working on the project claimed that the government has not yet made payments for work that has already been completed. Construction equipment had also been stolen. “We do not have security guards to avoid further theft of equipment,” he said.

Kotli Sattian Assistant Commissioner Ansar Hayat said he had no information about the pending work and would give his views once he had the information.

Federal minister Abbasi could not be reached for his view as according to his secretary, he was in a meeting.

When contacted, MNA Abbasi said due to contractual delays it became an unfunded scheme.

“I was informed just a few weeks back”, he said.

“I am working with the Punjab govt to resolve the issue and hopefully the contractor will be back on the job next month,” he concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2015.