Punjab Minister for Education Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman has said private educational institutions are performing a valuable service in the field of education and the government is providing all possible cooperation and assistance to the private sector.

According to a handout, talking to a group of students, the minister said the Punjab government was working hard to achieve 88 percent literacy rate till 2015 to fulfill the international commitment under Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He also said 262,500 students under the age of 4 to 15 years were getting education under non-formal basic education schools, adding the Daanish school project was a revolutionary step of the Punjab government which would not only minimise the divide between the rich and the poor but children of poor parents would also be able to acquire modern education.

upgrade of girl elementary schools: The Punjab government has provided a sum of Rs 52 crore for the upgrade of girl elementary schools to the secondary level in the province.

PEF Chairman Raja Muhammad Anwar said this at a meeting with a delegation of the NGOs which called on him on Saturday.

Raja Anwar said girl students were 52 percent of the total number of the students who were getting free education through public private partnership model of the Punjab Education Foundation. He hoped that various measures taken by the government would help increase the role of the women in the society. He also urged the NGOs to expand their voluntary work to the remote hinterlands, so that the rural folk could also benefit from it. The ten-member delegation included representatives of various NGOs.