Sindh approves handing 750 public schools to private management for 10 years
D.J. Sindh Government Science College, Karachi (file photo)
KARACHI: The Sindh government has approved handing over 750 public schools to private management. The decision was taken on Tuesday at the 53rd meeting of the Public-Private Partnership Policy Board, chaired by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at the CM House in Karachi. The schools will be run by education management organisations under 10-year service management contracts, after a three-month preparatory period in which the private operators will assess the schools and take charge.
453 schools from one programme, 295 from another
The 750 schools include 453 under the Sindh Secondary Education Improvement Project — 401 under additional financing and 52 under the original financing — along with 295 schools under the Sindh Early Learning Enhancement through Classroom Transformation programme and two English-medium Peoples Schools. The private operators will be responsible for teachers’ salaries, non-teaching staff, operational expenses, uniforms, stationery and other essential services, with the government providing the funding. The schools have a combined capacity of 345,940 students against current enrolment of 188,852, which means the new arrangement could open places for thousands more children.
Open bidding, and a committee to run it
The board has also set up a Technical and Financial Evaluation Committee and decided that the handover will go through open national competitive bidding on the e-PADS platform, using Quality and Cost-Based Selection, which weighs quality alongside cost. The same meeting approved a revised joint venture model for the Dhabeji Special Economic Zone, Rs2 billion in bridge financing for the Ghotki-Kandhkot Bridge, the development of Keti Bandar as a maritime and economic hub, and the restructuring of Sukkur’s water supply and sewerage system. The Sindh government had consulted education management organisations in October about private management of 1,133 upgraded schools; the board has now approved 750 schools for Phase-II, with the first phase planned to begin with the new academic year in April 2027.
