Coastal, hilly, plain and desert regions of Sindh have completely different climates, and it would be inappropriate to construct uniform infrastructure in all regions – Sardar Shah
By Rehan Khan Khushik
Karachi Sindh
A new school building policy is being devised under which the structure of buildings will be suggested according to the regional climatic environment in Sindh.
“The new policy will be sent to Sindh cabinet for approval,” provincial Minister for Education and Culture Syed Sardar Ali Shah said speaking at a one-day workshop on Monday.
The workshop titled “Building Back Better: Rethinking School Construction in context of climate change” held at a local hotel in Karachi was organized by Sindh Government in collaboration with UNESCO, World Bank, USAID and JICA. Education Works officers and representatives of other related organizations participated in the workshop.
Minister said that infrastructure has been destroyed in the province during the floods due to climate effects and inappropriate planning as well. ‘We have to make construction plans of school buildings according to modern requirements so that children can study in a safe environment in the future,” he said.
Sardar Shah said that due to the rains, 20 percent of the schools in Sindh were completely destroyed while 31 percent of the schools were partially damaged that affected the 50 percent of teaching process in the province.
In the rehabilitation phase, minister emphasized, the attention needs to be given to the school infrastructure according to the modern requirements and considering the regional weather forecast particularly the Sindh province.
He remarked that coastal, hilly, plain and desert regions of Sindh have completely different climates, and it would be inappropriate to construct uniform infrastructure in all regions.
Education Minister said that along with making school buildings safe, they will also be made environment-friendly. He added that in the past, while building school buildings, all the stakeholders were included in the process, but children were neglected. ‘Now school buildings will be constructed keeping the climate change and safety of children in mind.”
Speaking on the occasion, Naseer Memon suggested to conduct the engineering audit of all school buildings to identify the faults.
__________________
