n the five years of its tenure, the Punjab government failed in establishing computer laboratories in many governmentrun schools in the Rawalpindi district. Currently, 71 schools in the district do not have this facility.

The Punjab government had claimed it will establish computer laboratories in all high and middle school in the district.

This could not be done mostly due to slow funding.

It allocated Rs102 million for establishing computer laboratories in 51 government high schools in rural areas and 20 middle schools in the 2017-18 annual development program but the funds were only released in March.

A senior official of the education department told Dawn that 16 computers and tables, and an uninterrupted power supply device run by solar energy were to be installed in each of the high schools including in Kotli Sattian, Murree, Kalar Syedan and adjoining areas. Work on this was only started in March.

He said that the government was to install five computers, tables and a UPS system each in the middle schools. He said work on the project will likely be completed in the next fiscal year.

He said the government had included the computer laboratories in its annual development programs from 2013 through to 2018 but could not finish it as the money is released in phases.

When asked, Rawalpindi Education Authority District Officer Development Saleem Raza said work was underway on 71 computer labs and will likely be completed by the end of the current fiscal year. He said work on computer labs in 374 high schools in urban and rural areas has been completed in the last five years while and that the remaining 51 will also be completed soon. He said there are 1,846 government-run educational institutes in the district including primary, middle and high schools.

On the other hand, Punjab Teachers Association Chairman Saghir Alam told Dawn more than 100 schools in the district do not have computer teachers.

`What good is a computer laboratory if there are no teachers? Punjab government is not taking education seriously and all the work in this sector is just eye wash,` he said.