THE education ministry’s having missed the second deadline to complete the government secondary schools modernisation project is worrying. The ministry took up the Tk 3,284 crore project in 2017 to modernise 323 government secondary schools to make room for more students and to ensure quality education. The work was scheduled to end by June 2021. The ministry, however, failed and the deadline was extended by one more year. It failed again and the deadline was extended until June 2022. It, yet, failed again, with only 35 per cent of the work having been done in six years. The ministry is reported to have sought another extension by three years and a half and a cost overrun of Tk 1,058 crore. The project aims at eliminating regional disparities in government secondary schools, meeting the growing demand, creating better learning opportunities, building infrastructure and establishing multimedia classrooms, academic buildings, libraries, laboratories, prayer rooms, hostels and teachers’ quarters, and experts believe that the delayed implementation, typical of almost all development projects, harms both students and teachers.

The project has selected 125 schools for upward expansion but has later found, as an Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division report says, that 102 schools have the scope for upward expansion. Of the 102 buildings fit for upward expansion, 74 have been completed as of March and 28 are in varying stages. The project also aims at constructing buildings in 148 upazila schools, but construction has only begun in 137 schools, with only two having so far been completed. Moreover, the construction of 172 buildings in district and divisional headquarters has stalled. The project also includes the construction of hostels in 24 schools, but the work has yet to begin. Tenders for 21 hostel buildings have recently been approved. Such delays beat logic as the project does not require land acquisition, one of the problems largely believed to delay implementation. The IMED report also says that no feasibility study was done before the project formulation. It questions the whole purpose and processes of the project. How can the authorities approve and take up such a huge project without feasibility studies?

The delay in modernising government secondary schools means that non-government secondary schools, mostly under the monthly pay order scheme, are unlikely to get the facilities they need for quality education. The authorities must abandon their irresponsible behaviour in taking up projects and must take up projects only after proper feasibility studies. The authorities must now complete the project at the earliest and ensure that the job is done properly.