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November 8, 2026

Findivoza

Pakistan

Shehbaz orders Daanish Schools built round the clock, with no compromise on quality

Faizan Altaf

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has told officials to build Daanish Schools around the clock so the campuses open on time, while insisting that speed must not come at the cost of quality. He gave the order on Saturday, 31 October 2026, while chairing a review meeting in Lahore on the nationwide programme of free residential schools for talented children from poor families.

The direction is simple to state and hard to deliver: a school built quickly but badly helps no child, and a school built well but years late helps no child either. The prime minister paired the round-the-clock instruction with an order for third-party validation of the buildings, facilities and services.

“Our children are the future of the country, and Daanish Schools represent an investment in a bright future,” he said, according to the state news agency Associated Press of Pakistan. The meeting was held online through Zoom.

At a glance

What happened: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a review meeting on Saturday, 31 October 2026, and ordered round-the-clock construction of Daanish Schools across Pakistan, with no compromise on quality standards.

Why it matters: Daanish Schools offer free education, boarding, meals, uniforms and textbooks to talented children from low-income families, and the new campuses are in remote and underdeveloped regions.

What happens next: Officials must present a strategy for the merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, arrange road access in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and submit the schools to third-party quality checks. No public dates were given.

What the prime minister ordered

Officials briefed the prime minister on construction progress in Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan. Federal ministers and senior officials attended.

The first order was about pace. The prime minister directed the authorities to accelerate construction and to carry out the work round the clock so the schools are completed on time.

The second order was about standards. He stressed that no compromise on quality would be acceptable, whether in the construction itself or in the education and facilities provided once the schools open.

The third order was about proof. He instructed the authorities to arrange third-party validation to assess the quality of infrastructure, facilities and services. The government will not simply mark its own homework. But who will carry out that validation, and by when, was not stated, and a check with no named checker and no deadline is a promise, not yet a process.

The fourth order was about teaching. He directed officials to adopt modern artificial intelligence and information technology based methods for the education and training of students. No platforms, devices or rollout dates were named.

Why speed and quality are hard to hold together

Round-the-clock construction can recover lost weeks, but building through the night also creates risks: supervision gets thinner, mistakes are easier to miss, and materials delivered in a hurry are harder to check.

That is why the third-party validation order matters. If the outside check is genuinely independent, it can catch poor concrete, unsafe wiring, leaking roofs and unfinished dormitories before children move in. If it is a formality, it will catch nothing, and the round-the-clock order will have bought speed at the price of safety.

The quality question matters more because these are residential schools. Children do not just attend classes there; they sleep, eat and study there. A day school can send children home; a boarding school with faulty dormitories, kitchens or water supply cannot. The facilities list makes this clear: accommodation, meals, uniforms, textbooks, laboratories, libraries, medical support and sports activities all have to work, every day.

Who gets in, and why the merit rule matters

The clearest rule in the announcement is about admissions. Enrolment in Daanish Schools will remain purely merit-based, reserved solely for deserving children from low-income families. The prime minister repeated the point in the meeting, and Business Recorder carried the wording in full.

That rule is the test for the whole programme. A free residential school with good teachers, laboratories and dormitories is a valuable prize, and valuable prizes attract pressure. The merit rule exists to stop places going to families with connections, money or influence, and it only works if it is enforced at every campus, for every intake, without exception.

The admissions notice for the 2027 academic year shows how the rule is meant to work. Admission is intended for underprivileged students, and the notice lists several family circumstances for consideration. These include household income below Rs40,000 a month, orphanhood or the death of parents without a suitable guardian or means of support, parents who are illiterate and own no immovable property in specified circumstances, a child who has left school, and families reliant on low-skilled or unskilled rural work. Applicants should check the official notice for the documents required.

Selection involves a written examination, an interview, a medical examination and family background verification. The notice says there is no room for recommendations. Whether the rule holds in practice will be visible in who actually gets in.

More than 40,000 students are already studying at Daanish Schools, according to an official briefing at the inauguration of the Daanish School in Kuri, Islamabad, on Sunday, 18 October 2026. Thousands of graduates have gone on to work as doctors, engineers, police officers, bureaucrats, managers and teachers.

Artificial intelligence and technology in the classroom

The instruction to bring artificial intelligence and information technology into Daanish School teaching is one of the least detailed parts of the announcement, and one of the most consequential. Done well, it could give children from remote districts access to the same digital tools as children in big cities. Done as a slogan, it could mean a few computers in a locked room and a line in a speech.

The new campuses are being designed with technology in mind. The Daanish School in Kuri, Islamabad, inaugurated on 18 October, was built on 30 acres and currently provides education from Grade 6 to Grade 8, with 360 talented students from different parts of Pakistan admitted on merit. The campus includes information technology, science and robotics laboratories, an e-library and an art room, the template the government says it wants to repeat.

The Chromebook scheme launched on Sunday, 25 October 2026, points the same way. Under the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, 500,000 Chromebooks and internet devices are to be distributed to talented students of schools and religious seminaries over two years, with the first recipients also receiving bags and MiFi devices so they can access the internet, attend classes remotely and use electronic libraries from home. The prime minister thanked Rashid Minhas, founder of the Tokyo Care Foundation, for donating towards the initiative.

Roads, remote districts and the merged districts

A school that children cannot reach is no school at all. The prime minister directed the Ministry of Communications to build an efficient road network to ensure easy access to Daanish School sites in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. In mountain districts, distance alone can keep children out of school, even when the school itself is free.

The other geographical order concerns the merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The prime minister directed the authorities to present a strategy for establishing Daanish Schools in the merged districts at the earliest. No strategy was published with the announcement, and no date was given, so families there still do not know how many schools are planned, where they will be, or when they will open.

The same day, at a separate meeting with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz parliamentary party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the prime minister gave a more concrete picture for the province. He said Daanish School campuses were being established in Chitral, Haripur, Mansehra, Bajaur and Shangla, in remote and underdeveloped districts, with plans to announce additional campuses later this year.

How big the network is now

Daanish Schools began in Punjab in 2010, when Shehbaz Sharif was chief minister of the province. The idea was to give talented children from marginalised communities an education comparable to the country’s leading schools, with boarding facilities, free of charge. The programme has since expanded beyond Punjab, and it now operates under the Pakistan Education Endowment Fund, which evolved from the Punjab Education Endowment Fund.

The network already has 20 schools in Punjab. Beyond the province, officials put the number of schools under construction at 27, with nine in Balochistan, six in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three in Sindh, five in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and four in Gilgit-Baltistan. Those five figures add up to 27, and they are the figures this article uses. Readers should know that one official briefing at the Kuri inauguration gave the total as 28 while listing the same regional breakdown, and that some reports of the prime minister’s speech on 25 October gave the figure as 27. The difference is small, but it is a reminder to treat the headline total with care until the government publishes a campus-by-campus list.

The government is also completing the first Daanish University of Science and Technology in Islamabad, according to the briefing at the inauguration.

What families need to know now

For families considering Daanish Schools, the most urgent dates are about admissions for the 2027 academic year, and the deadline is close.

The Daanish Schools Authority, under the Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training, has opened admissions for Grades 6, 7 and 8 at selected campuses in Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Forms have been available since 19 October 2026, and the last date to submit them is Thursday, 12 November 2026. The entrance examination is scheduled for Saturday, 12 December 2026. Families should confirm the arrangements for their preferred campus before applying, because not every campus takes all three grades.

The age limits are calculated as of 31 March 2027. For Grade 6, boys must be between 10 and 12 years old and girls between 10 and 13. For Grade 7, the limits are 11 to 13 for boys and 11 to 14 for girls. For Grade 8, they are 12 to 14 for boys and 12 to 15 for girls.

Forms can be obtained from the listed Daanish School campuses and education offices in Islamabad, or downloaded from the Daanish Schools website. More information is listed at daanish.edu.pk and mofept.gov.pk. Families should confirm the submission method and required documents with the relevant office before sending a form.

Selected students get free education, accommodation, meals, uniforms and textbooks, along with computer, science and robotics laboratories, libraries, medical and psychological support, and sports and literary activities.

One caution is worth stating plainly. The photograph with this article is an archive photo of schoolchildren in Peshawar, not a photograph of a Daanish School campus. It is used to illustrate school life in Pakistan, not to show any particular Daanish School, its buildings or its students.

What to watch next

Two things will show whether the 31 October orders turn into results. The first is the strategy for the merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. If it names campuses, places and dates, it is a plan. If it does not appear, or appears only as a general statement, the order will have produced words rather than schools.

The second is the third-party validation. The public needs to know who the validator is, what standards are being checked, and whether the results will be published. A validation report that is never released is no validation at all. If the results are published campus by campus, parents will be able to see which schools passed, which failed, and what was fixed.

Frequently asked questions

What did the prime minister order on 31 October 2026?

He ordered construction of Daanish Schools across Pakistan to run round the clock so the schools are completed on time, with no compromise on quality. He also ordered third-party validation, artificial intelligence and information technology based teaching, a road network for schools in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and a strategy for the merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

What are Daanish Schools?

Daanish Schools are free residential schools for talented children from low-income families. They provide education, accommodation, meals, uniforms and textbooks at no cost, along with laboratories, libraries, medical support and sports activities. The programme began in Punjab in 2010, with more than 40,000 students now enrolled.

Who can apply for admission?

Admission is strictly merit-based and reserved for deserving children from low-income families. The 2027 notice lists circumstances including household income below Rs40,000 a month, orphanhood, illiterate parents with no immovable property in specified circumstances, a child who has left school, and families reliant on low-skilled or unskilled rural work. Selection is by written examination, interview, medical examination and family background verification, with no room for recommendations.

When do applications for 2027 close, and when is the entrance test?

Applications for Grades 6, 7 and 8 at the federal campuses in Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir close on Thursday, 12 November 2026, and the entrance examination is on Saturday, 12 December 2026. Families should confirm campus-specific arrangements through official channels before applying.

How many Daanish Schools are under construction?

Officials put the number at 27, with nine in Balochistan, six in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three in Sindh, five in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and four in Gilgit-Baltistan. One briefing gave the total as 28 while listing the same breakdown, which adds up to 27.

Will the new schools really be finished on time?

That is not yet known. No completion dates for individual campuses were published with the 31 October announcement. The round-the-clock order and the third-party validation are meant to deliver speed and quality together, but the proof will be in published completion dates, published validation results and schools that actually open with their facilities working.

Conclusion

The 31 October meeting gave Daanish Schools a clear, public instruction to build faster and a clear, public instruction not to cut corners while doing it. The merit rule was restated without qualification, the teaching was pointed towards artificial intelligence and information technology, and the hardest geographical problems, roads in the north and schools in the merged districts, were named rather than avoided.

None of that is a finished school. The children who will benefit are the ones whose families apply by 12 November, sit the test on 12 December, and then find a campus that is finished, safe, staffed and reachable. The government has set itself a test it cannot pass with words alone.

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.

Sources

Faizan Altaf

Faizan Altaf is the founder and author of findivoza.com, a news blog covering world, Pakistan, business, technology, health and sport in plain English. He writes for general readers who want clear, trustworthy news without jargon. His work focuses on explaining what happened, why it matters, and what to watch next.

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