LARKANA: Sindh Basic Education Program (SBEP) is a USAID-funded project which is being implemented by the Government of Sindh’s Education and Literacy Department in the province of Sindh. This program is worth $165 million out of which $10 million were to be contributed by Sindh government.
The planning period is from 2012-2016 (extension till September 2018). Out of $165 million, $80 million were for physical work of the school construction, rest of the $74 million of heavy grant were to be utilized to implement reading literacy, community mobilization, technical assistance of department of education, M&E and office of the infrastructure and engineering (OIE) components, while the $10 million contribution of the GoS was to be utilized to meet the Project Management and Implementation Unit (PMIU) cost.
The program will support the construction of 120 schools affected by the catastrophic floods in 2010 and the Sindh government’s policy of consolidating, merging and upgrading schools throughout the province. Out of 400 schools in Sindh, 120 new schools were to be constructed and the remaining 280 will be merged under a streamlined for structure to improve the efficiency and performance of the schools. 280 schools have already been identified by the program for merging and consolidation.
The overall mission is to increase and sustain enrollment of young students in primary, middle and secondary schools in targeted districts in Sindh by developing a school environment favorable to teaching and learning. The construction of these schools with the necessary provision of facilities shall invariably increase the enrollment of students. Geographical coverage of newly constructed schools in Sukkur (13 schools out of which 12 are under-construction), Larkana (all 13 schools under-construction), Khairpur (12 schools under construction out of 15 and 3 are yet to be constructed), Kambar-Shahdadkot (out of 21 schools only seven are under-construction), Kashmore (all 10 schools are yet to see construction work), Jacobabad all 13 schools are yet be constructed and in Karachi nine schools were to be constructed whereas only five are under-construction.
It has been learnt that since 4 years out of 120 schools only four schools have been completed and handed over to education department which include GHS Koro Goth, GHS Tando Mir Ali, GHS Jhajh Regulator of Khairpur and GGHS Arain of Sukkur while 61 schools are still under construction and construction of 45 other schools is yet to be started.
As per approved PC-1, the expected date of completion time of 24 schools of Larkana & Khairpur districts was March 2016 but so far not a single school has been completed due to any bottlenecks which can only be termed ill-planning, lack of interest and failure of Sindh government to achieve its declared targets despite having independent PMIU.
Many schools have been established on political grounds; it is alleged, whereas according to the local people, there was no need of such new schools. Five schools have been established In Ratodero taluka within the area of about 10-15 square kilometers such as Kehar village, Phulpota village, Saidu Dero village and at Pir Jo Goth. The schools identified in Dokri & Bakrani taluka which are under-construction but their purpose to enroll more out of school students also lack proper studies because kids are not available in the requisite areas.
Junaid Ahmed Dahar, Regional Campaign Organizer, Alif Ailaan, Sindh, while talking to Reporters here on Tuesday alleged that the school infrastructure of the public schools in Sindh had completely collapsed as per Sindh Education Management Profile 2015. He said out of 46,039 schools in Sindh as many as 45,264 are without libraries, 44,894 schools are without science laboratories, 38,392 schools are without playgrounds, 23,315 schools are without the facility of drinking water, 28,760 schools are without the facility of electricity, 19,082 school buildings are repairable, 5,861 buildings are in dangerous condition, 11,265 primary schools have single classrooms, 7,179 schools are shelterless and 276 school are working in rented buildings. Instead of improving the existing infrastructure, Dahar added, Sindh government is working with different donors on costly projects which have no relevance with ground realities. He further said that the top most education issue of Sindh is bad governance and ill-planning which must be improved at all costs. Sindh government has completely failed to implement the Sindh Education Management Cadre which is dire need of the time, Dahar expressed his view.
