The Ministry of Education received a major set back on Saturday when Central Development Working Party (CDWP) deferred its PC-1 of Rs 26.795 billion for the establishment of 82,000 home-based schools.
The PC-1 was prepared and submitted by the ministry of education seeking Rs 26.975 billion for the expansion of Non-Formal Basic Education Schools (NFBES), which had been declared by the Planning Commission as dead, sick and slow moving in May 2005 and recommended their closure.
However, minister for education, Javed Ashraf Qazi who was not happy over the recommendations had directed the project director to revise the PC-I and submit it to the Planning Commission for approval.
The existence, performance and functioning of these schools had remained controversial since plan was initiated. Their contribution for promoting literacy in the country was yet to be determined.
The plan for establishing 82,000 home-based schools, in areas where separate primary schools for girls were non-existent, was initiated under the Prime Minister's Literacy Commission in 1995.
The project, which was designed to provide an opportunity to out-of-school children of age 5 to 9 for getting education, received a major setback when the teachers could not be paid salaries in time and students were not provided learning materials due to lack of funds.
An official of the project told Business Recorder that out of 82,000 schools, 10,000 Non-Formal Basic Education Schools (NFBES) were established but even these were not functioning properly due to non-provision of funds by the government. The project, which was to be completed in five years ending 2002-03, could not be completed even in 2005 owing to non-availability of funds.
"Under the revised PC-I, the Matriculate untrained teachers of the NFBES schools would be paid minimum Rs 3,000 as monthly salary, while Intermediate and Graduate would be paid Rs 3,500 and 4000 respectively.
The supervisory allowance has also been increased to the NGOs for the supervision of the NFBES schools allocated to them.
It is also recommended that the amount for teaching aids and material in the schools be increased from Rs 3,500 to Rs 10,000 per year and Rs 500 per month for the utility bills.