Daily Times

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah directed the education department to complete the reconstruction of 3,328 schools out of 19,808 damaged by the 2022 floods during the current financial year.

He issued these directives while presiding over a review meeting of the school education department here at CM House on Wednesday.

Minister P&D Syed Nasir Shah, Minister Education Syed Sardar Shah, Chairman P&D Najam Shah, Secretary Finance Fayaz Jatoi, Secretary to CM Raheem Shaikh, Secretary School Education Zahid Abbasi and others attended the meeting.

The CM was told that out of 19808 schools, reconstruction and repair of 3328 schools under different projects have either been started or in the tender process. The CM directed the minister of education to personally monitor the construction work so that these schools could be reconstructed by the end of June 2025.

During the briefing, the CM was informed that the repair of 1769 schools and the reconstruction of 1559 school buildings have been taken up under 10 different local and foreign-assisted projects for Rs114.3 billion.

They include the SSEIP (flood-assisted) project 1026 schools will be repaired/reconstructed for Rs 62.6 billion, for which tenders have been issued. The repair and reconstruction of 31 schools under SSEIP (regular) have been taken up for Rs 4 million and work is in progress. Under the SELECT project, 166 schools will be reconstructed for which tenders have been floated.

Through the DEEP project, 111 schools are under construction for Rs 2.44 billion. In the ASPIRE project, four schools are under construction for Rs112.7 billion. China has given a grant of Rs 7.6 billion for reconstruction of 100 schools and the scheme is under approval process. Under the PSDP tenders for repair/reconstruction of 456 schools have been floated for Rs10.7 billion. JIACA has also given Rs 419.38 million for repairing and reconstructing of five schools for which bids were under evaluation. Under the ADP repair/reconstruction of 687 schools is in progress for Rs 7.89 billion. Through Maintenance & Repair, 742 schools are being repaired for Rs 3 billion and work is in progress.

Minister Education Syed Sardar Shah told the CM that 824,008 children were enrolled in the 3328 schools damaged by the floods. The CM directed the school education department to keep visiting the schools where repair work has been started or would be taken up to review their educational activities.

The school education department has developed a Dashboard which reflects all 40,978 schools and their 5,219 784 enrolments. It also shows the 19808 damaged schools, including 7,503 completely damaged. The dashboard has also the ability to track the development works carried out on the ground and even the process of procurement, tendering stage and approval process.

The chief minister directed the P&D and the School Education Departments to complete the construction work of the 3328 school buildings by the end of the current financial year. Meanwhile, he would arrange funds for the remaining 16480 schools so that they could also be repaired/reconstructed.