Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday directed urgent reforms in infrastructure, curriculum, teacher training and other areas across all government schools in Islamabad. He also announced the activation of a free lunch programme to improve student nutrition.
Sharif made the announcements at a high-level meeting on reforms in the capital’s government schools. He asked Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal to make sure the identified problems were resolved within the set timeframe.
Emergency repairs and smart boards for city schools
Sharif told authorities to mobilise all available resources to fix infrastructure problems on an emergency basis. He said providing a safe learning environment was the government’s responsibility.
He also ordered smart boards to be installed in all government schools at the earliest. Sharif further called for ramps in every institution for students with physical disabilities, along with solarisation and quality medical facilities.
Teachers’ duties and school bus expansion
Sharif said teachers should focus only on teaching and educational activities and should not be given other tasks. He also directed that teacher recruitment be carried out strictly on merit.
To improve access to education, he called for expanding the government school bus service. He also directed the outsourcing of student bus services, with third-party validation. Officials told the meeting that 278 government buses were already operating across Islamabad.
Survey shows basic facilities in most schools
The meeting was told that most government schools in Islamabad had basic facilities, including internet connectivity, clean drinking water and computer laboratories. Infrastructure issues, however, had been identified in some of the schools covered by the survey.
