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Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
THE Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has invited companies interested in entering into joint venture partnerships with the government to develop schools’ infrastructure and those interested should approach the ministry before July 30.

The country has a deficit of 2,056 schools, 1,252 primary schools and 804 secondary schools and the government intends to address the shortage through joint ventures.

In a notice yesterday, the ministry said the government had approved the project.

“The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is therefore inviting interested companies and institutions who would like to enter into joint venture partnerships for school infrastructure development to express their interest before July 30, 2015,” said the ministry.

It said the government intends to construct the schools through two models.

“The partnership will comprise two models. The first model is the Build Transfer (BT) model, where infrastructure development companies construct school infrastructure and hand over to the ministry for use. They’ll then receive loan repayments as agreed at the time of entering an agreement.

“In the second model, institutions provide funds for the construction of school infrastructure and receive their loan payments as agreed at the time of entering the agreement.”

The amount of money required to construct the schools could not be obtained yesterday as the ministry’s director for policy, research and development, Peter Muzawazi, could not be reached for comment.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister Lazarus Dokora said the government alone cannot address the schools deficit.