PESHAWAR: The Planning and Development Department (P&D), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has expressed reservations about a proposal to give over Rs7 billion to the Elementary and Secondary Education (E&SE) Department for utilisation on provision of missing facilities in the government higher secondary schools, according to sources.

The P&D has raised questions about the proposed plan to utilise such a huge amount merely on the improvement of buildings without mentioning how much improvement in quality of education is linked with it, they said.The sources said that the E&SE Department had demanded Rs4.6 billion for the first phase in which 200 higher secondary schools would beprovidedmissingfacilities,including electrification, water supply, group lavatories, furniture, boundary wall, library books, sports equipment, and science and IT lab equipments.

An additional amount of Rs210 million would be utilised for hiring consultants, which is five per cent of the total amount estimated for the hrst phase, the sources said. The P&D has also raised objections over the big amount to be given to the consultants, terming it misuse of the national exchequer, they said.

The education department has named the proposed plan as `standardisation of schools`, a non-Annual Development Programme being initiated on the special directives of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak. The proposed plan suggests that of 364 higher secondary schools 200 would be provided missing facilities in thefirst phase.

The average tentative cost per school has been estimated at Rs20 million while consultant would be hired at 5 per cent of that amount who will prepare PC-Is for the selected 200 schools for refurbishment/construction activities, according to documents available with Dawn.

`The proposed concept of standardisation of schools merely relates to development in infrastructure and no qualitative changes have been expected with the utilisation of billions of rupees,` the sources said.

They said that the consultant would charge Rs1 million for each school. They said that of the 5 per cent consultancy charges, 2 per cent would be for the project designing and three per cent for supervision charges.

A senior officer told Dawn that the government had a standard design for the buildings of the government schools and there might not be any need for hiring a consultant. He saidthat the education department had the data of each and everything of all schools collected by the Independent Monitoring Unit. `It (education department)knowswellwhatfacility is missing in which school, then why it wants to pay such a huge amount to the consultant,` he asked.

The sources said that the development projects of Rs100 million and below had already been exempted by the provincial government from its policy to hire consultants. They said that under the standardisation of schools project the estimated cost for each school was Rs20 million and there was no need to hire consultants.

The sources said that the P&D had advised the education department to reconsider the entire concept of the proposal. They said that hiring of consultants should be avoided in the proposed project as assessment of missing facilities could easily be done through the district and field offices of the education and communication and works departments.