year after the announcement of the Prime Minister`s Education Reform Programme, construction work and setting up Montessori classes has not been done yet in all but 11 schools, even though the establishment of Montessori classes in public sector schools was a major part of the reforms, other than changes in the infrastructure of the institutions.

Officials in the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) told Dawn that the delay in starting the second phase of the project for the transformation of 200 schools and setting up Montessori classes was due to a delay in the release of funds by the federal government.

`We have moved our PC-1 to the planning commission which is expected to take up the issue in its upcoming meeting, a senior FDE official said. He said the Montessori classes setup in 11 schools have been running successfully and that the reforms programme will bring a real change in public sector education if fully implemented.

`However, the execution of the project is the main concern. In the first phase, we only focused on the face lifting of schools and ignored the construction of extra classroom so students don`t have to attend classed under the open sky,` he said, adding that extra classrooms are now being constructed in 15 of the 22 remodelled schools, which was disturbing academic activities.

`Construction work in schools should be carried out during the summer holidays, but the concerned officers could not complete this task then,` he added.

So far, 2,000 teaching posts are vacant and no efforts have been made to make appointments on them. The FDE has received 25 buses. However, instead of handing over the busses to the schools, the Capital Administration and Development Division is waiting for an inauguration ceremony for this, which the premier is likely to attend. `The government should focus on completing the programme during its tenure. It is a good initiative and should be completed on a priority basis,` a teacher said.