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Thursday March 28, 2024

Minister all praise for private schools

LAHOREProvincial Minister for Law, Excise & Taxation, and Finance Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman has said the private educational institutions are playing a pivotal role in providing quality education and the government highly appreciates the services of private sector for the enhancement of literacy rate. He said the Punjab School Reforms Roadmap was

By our correspondents
May 14, 2015
LAHORE
Provincial Minister for Law, Excise & Taxation, and Finance Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman has said the private educational institutions are playing a pivotal role in providing quality education and the government highly appreciates the services of private sector for the enhancement of literacy rate. He said the Punjab School Reforms Roadmap was yielding positive results for the uplift of education sector and enrolment of every child of the province would be ensured by the end of 2018.
Talking to a delegation of Pakistan Private Schools Management Association, Mujtaba said the budget allocated for education was Rs.274 billion, which was 26.25 percent of total expenditures. He said the improvement of higher education was the priority of government and Rs.14.5 billion had been provided for the development of the higher education. He said that new targets had been set under the Punjab School Reforms Roadmap and the 18-point new roadmap would have to be implemented in letter and spirit for achieving all these targets till 2018. Mujtaba told the media that provision of the education was a constitutional obligation of the government, but the government could not do this duty single-handedly and it required the support of the private sector in this regard. It is encouraging that Private Schools are providing standardised education and the presence of quality school was a healthy sign for the education system of the country. He said the scholarships of 12 billion rupees were being provided to more than 50,000 students within the country and abroad from the endowment fund and students of private education institutions were also benefiting from this fund. He said the government considered private schools an active partner in the struggle of promotion of education in the country and Rs.7.50 billion had been provided by the Punjab Education Foundation for grant to the private schools as 15 lakh students were getting education in private schools.
Mujtaba said the Punjab government was pursuing a comprehensive policy for the promotion and upgrade of school education and Rs. eight billion had been provided for the missing facilities in all the schools in the province. He said that Rs. 3.63 billion had been provided for the distribution of free of cost textbooks to the students. He said the IT labs had been set up in more than 5,000 high schools and 515 middle schools. He said that Rs.2.40 billion had been provided for 20 lakh non-formal students.
Mujtaba informed the media that 3,068 primary and middle schools had been upgraded at a cost of Rs.13005 million during the last six years. He said the government had abolished all the reserved seats of self-finance in the professional colleges and only talented students were getting admission on merit. He said the talented girl and boy students were being given laptops, while the male and female students obtaining first position in all the boards were sent abroad on tour to the prestigious universities of the world.