- Residents say renovation of final 200 schools, colleges still in doldrums
ISLAMABAD: Parents and students living in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) have demanded of the government to complete the remaining renovation and up-gradation process of the public sector schools and colleges of the federal capital.
The renovation process of remaining 200 schools working under the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) was supposed to be completed during the tenure of the last government but due to change of the political scenario in the country it was halted.
The parents have urged the government to improve the standard of these schools and the colleges compatible to the private sector as it was also part of the manifesto of the ruling party to provide quality education to the citizens.
Asim Ali, father of a student, lamenting on the poor condition of the schools, appealed the government to pay special focus on the federal schools. “The falling standard of education in the public sector educational institutions was creating panic for the parents as they are unable to provide expensive education to their children at private sector schools,” he said.
Nasir Ali, father of another student, said that the previous government was failed to complete the education reforms programme during their five-year tenure. He said that the renovation of the final 200 schools and the colleges was still in doldrums. He said that the prime minister’s education reforms programme was launched by the Ministry of CADD which has now been abolished.
It is pertinent to note here that the prime minister’s education reforms programme was launched in Dec 2015. The project was started to renovate the 422 public educational institutions in the federal capital in three phases. The first phase included the refurbishment of 22 institutions which was completed in 2016 and following a substantial delay, the second phase was started which is in process.
However, officials said that the project was still pending in the Planning Commission which needed to be approved on the demand of the parents.