LARAKANA: In response of the story with the title ‘120 USAID funded s
chools not yet established in Sindh’ published in Daily Times on March 29, 2017, Abdul Wahab Soomro, Program Director, Project Management & Implementation Unit, Sindh Basic Education Program has said that for some technical reasons, the
school could not be completed on time.
“To set the record straight, I would like to inform that SBEP is operating in Sukkur, Larkana, Khairpur, Kashmore, Dadu, Qambar Shahdadkot, Jacobabad and five towns of Karachi and only 106 s
chools are being con
structed under the program as opposed to the 120 quoted in the report,” said Soomro, adding that to date the program has achieved significant successes, including completion of 23 s
chools in Sukkur and Khairpur districts, while con
struction on another 79 s
chools is well under way -18 of these s
chools are expected to be completed by December 2017, of these 3 will be in Larkana.
It is worth mentioning that these s
chools were supposed be completed by 20
16.
Talking about the damaged by s
chools during 2010 floods, he said that a third party survey was conducted prior to the selection of the s
chools, and strict compliance was accorded with the set selection criteria, as opposed to alleged political selection.
He said the number of students in SBEP s
chools has now reached 116,629, of which 38,812 are newly-enrolled through the efforts of the SBEP’s dedicated Community Mobilization Program. “Through the same community engagement initiatives, private land owners have voluntarily come forward to donate land worth Rs. 49.4 million for 20 government s
chools in Khairpur, Sukkur, Larkana & Dadu districts as a service to education,” he added.
On other hand, the data available on the official website of SBEP, approved PC-1 and ground realities, clearly states that the proposed
school could not completed on time.
On the other hand, this Scribe visited on Saturday as many as three s
chools in Pir Jo Goth, Phulpota and Saidu Dero villages of Ratodero Taluka & found con
struction of these s
chools was started on 17th October 2014 which was to be completed by 16 April 2016 but con
structi
on is still underway. These s
chools were to be established on need basis but other s
chools are also working nearby which proved that without proper feasibility the con
struction was started.
Sindh Basic Education Program is supporting Government of Sindh for con
struction of state of the art child-friendly s
chools by developing
school environments conducive to teaching and learning. Under this program 106 child-friendly s
chools (1,400 classrooms) will be con
structed. The con
struction of these s
chools with the necessary provision of facilities shall invariably increase the enrollment of students.
The 2010 floods affected approximately 5,000 s
chools in Sindh of which approximately 2,500 s
chools were completely destroyed. This natural catastrophe hindered the education of thousands of children in Sindh. USAID intends to build approximately 75 s
chools (900 classrooms) affected by the floods.