Home ›› 31 Oct 2022 ›› Front
A massive project to develop and redecorate 3000 non-government secondary schools across the country took off in 2018 with a hefty fund of Tk10,649 crore. More than four years later, construction works at hundreds of schools were incomplete with zero progress in at least 103, while redecoration had hardly begun.
Launched without any feasibility studies, the project has been marred with problems over the years, including frequent changes of project directors (PDs), work halts by contractors, and faulty building construction, according to an Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) report published in June this year.
The gloomy progress outlook indicates that there is little hope for the project to meet its initial deadline in June 2023.
Sluggish construction progress
Under the project - Development at selected non-government secondary schools- 3000 schools are supposed to get new buildings and furniture for classrooms by mid-2023.
But according to IMED, up until March this year, the civil works of 151 schools had seen 25% completion, while construction progress at 179 schools was recorded at below 50%.
Besides, construction was yet to begin in at least 103 schools. Among them, work did not begin in at least 20 schools due to a lack of proper roads to carry construction materials, land disputes, faulty piling works, delays in design handover, etc.
In some cases, contractors refused to start work on the pretext of construction material price hikes while some contractors, who won contracts for multiple buildings, have shown slow progress at work.
However, Delwar Hossain Majumder, chief engineer of the Education Engineer Department (EED) told The Business Post recently that the project has progressed much since March.
“As far as I know, construction work has been stalled in more or less 20-25 places now,” he said.
So far construction works of 1183 schools have been completed and academic buildings have been handed over to the schools’ authorities, said the IMED report. The division picked 64 schools in 32 upazilas in 16 districts for case studies to prepare the report.
The project has been divided into seven categories depending on regions. The authorities planned to construct 2450 four-storey academic buildings in towns and villages on plain land, 100 six-storey buildings in cities, 50 four-storey buildings in the hill districts, 150 five-story academic buildings cum cyclone shelters in coastal districts, 50 five-storey buildings in haor, beel, and riverine areas, 175 four-storey buildings in south region’s saline areas and 25 semi-pucca buildings in river erosion-prone areas.
Till April this year, in towns and villages on plain land, construction work was completed at 733 schools. Besides, construction work saw completion at 22 schools in city areas, 8 schools in hilly areas, only 2 schools in the coastal areas, 37 schools in saline areas, and 50 schools in haor, beel and riverine areas.
Furniture delivery at 3% even after deadline
According to the original development project proposal (DPP), contractors were asked to supply furniture by June 2021. But by April 2022, the work progress was recorded at only 3.30 per cent.
Explaining the delay, Shah Naimul Kader, outgoing PD of the project, said, “Storing furniture at construction sites was difficult before completing the civil works. So, supplying furniture was approved only to schools where work progress is from 60% to 100%.”
He said 137 institutes had received furniture by May 2022.
Faulty start with no feasibility study
The root of the problems slumping the project’s progress is considered to be the lack of feasibility studies.
In its report, IMED said the project implementing authorities did not conduct a feasibility study or baseline survey, which is a must for any project involving more than Tk 25cr.
The absence of a feasibility study for the project has created many complexities including school and construction site selection, land acquisition, building design, etc, according to the IMED.
The Education Engineering Department of the Secondary and Higher Education Division under the education ministry has been implementing the project since 2018.
The Planning Commission at a project evaluation committee (PEC) meeting with the implementing authorities in June 2017 recommended that such studies were necessary before taking up the project. But the project’s chief engineer argued at the time that a feasibility study would delay the implementation and the project was approved without a study.
Missteps, rules violation
According to project documents, the government made no delay in releasing funds for the project. Still, its progress was staunched due to a flurry of rules violations and missteps by implementing authorities.
Work orders for 48 schools were issued in 2018 and 2019 but contractors have not started work citing construction materials price hikes, said IMED. In total, authorities have issued work orders for 2952 schools.
Besides, many construction sites failed in soil tests and fresh load tests were asked to perform to verify new design capacity, said the report.
Other irregularities in the project made headlines over the years.
Project directors for the project have been changed thrice since work began, once even without taking required approval from the authorities concerned.
Earlier this year, a four-storey building, constructed under the project, at Pallishree Secondary School in Dumuria of Khulna tilted, drawing heavy criticism.
After the matter was published in news outlets a team led by the project director visited and asked to rectify the error. Later, a team of engineers in June said the building tilted as it was constructed some yards off the actual site where no soil test was conducted. It has been reconstructed properly.
Interference by MPs
Explaining the project’s slow progress, its outgoing PD Naimul Kader told the IMED team that initially they had received names of 2725 schools out of 3000 to work on. Later, local members of parliament (MPs) provided names for their respective areas. However, implementing authorities are yet to get the names of nine schools.
Also, he said MPs have requested to change some schools from the list but those institutions did not get approval by May. This has delayed construction at many schools where progress is now zero.
He also alleged, “The MPs brought changes to the selected list and are still doing that.”
Besides, Naimul Kader said some work orders were issued late and the sites were handed over to contractors which has also delayed construction works.
Asked why the authorities did not follow the DPP properly, EED Chief Engineer Delwar Hossain Majumder said that sometimes there are complexities with land, design etc.
For instance, he said maybe according to the DPP a four-storey building was to be built in a place, but authorities want it to be a six-storey building, sometimes even ten-storey, depending on the land value.
Shedding more light on the project’s sloth-like pace, Naimul Kader said after testing the soil many construction sites were found to have less load capacity and pile foundations were recommended for 420 schools which increased the project cost.
These changes to the project needed additional time to be approved by the authorities, further delaying the project, he said. Closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic also slowed down progress, he added.
