Schools won’t be allowed to raise fees: Shahbaz

LAHORE
A delegation of parents association Wednesday met Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and thanked him for resolving fee hike issue of private schools.
The team also appreciated the efforts of the CM for promotion of education and establishment of Daanish schools in the province.
Talking to the parents delegation, the CM said education is the right of every child and the Punjab government is implementing a comprehensive programme for ensuring 100 per cent enrolment of kids in schools and promotion of quality education.
Therefore, he said, there is a dire need to work with honesty, commitment and determination to achieve this objective. The CM said the education department will have to work more efficiently to improve the standard of education in public sector schools.
He said the Punjab government has ensured quality educational facilities to the children of low-income segments by setting up Daanish schools.
He said an immediate notice was taken of the protest of parents over increase in fees by private educational institutions and the government immediately issued an ordinance in this regard for the purpose of lessening the financial burden of the parents.
The CM said under the ordinance, private schools will not be allowed to raise their fees in the ongoing educational session and they will have to get registered within 45 days.
He said there was no justification for increase in fees, saying that a procedure has been evolved for the implementation of the steps under the ordinance and authorities have been constituted at district level which comprise representatives of parents and schools.
The CM directed education department authorities to evolve a comprehensive mechanism for maintaining a close and constant contact with the parents association and teachers as all relevant departments and associations have to work together for the promotion of education.
Provincial Minister for Education Rana Mashhood Ahmad, the secretary schools education, Commissioner Lahore Division and DCO Lahore were also present.
Land Record: Shahbaz Sharif has said that a modern Land Record Management & Information System has been introduced in all tehsils of the province. He said that service centres are fully operational in 143 tehsils of Punjab which are providing services to the people.
He said that the computerisation of land record was an important step towards eliminating Patwari culture existing for decades throughout Punjab. He said that computerisation of land record was a historic step of the Punjab government and lakhs of people were benefiting from it. He said that under the Land Record Management & Information System, getting ownership deed and process of transfer of land had become possible in a few minutes.
He expressed these views while presiding over a meeting with regard to Land Record Management & Information System, here Wednesday, in which approval was given to the administrative structure of a separate authority for future implementation of this modern system and a number of important decisions were taken in this regard. Addressing the meeting, the chief minister said that corruption, fraud and forgery in land matters would be eliminated due to the modern system.
Land Record Management & Information System and big facility had been provided to the people through this system. He said a common man was getting relief in the real sense through this project of billions of rupees of the Punjab government. He said that provision of documents of land was becoming possible to the people under one roof through this project. Giving approval to the administrative structure of a separate autonomous authority for monitoring and implementation of this project in future, he said that there should be an effective system of internal audit and the internal audit of this project would be compulsory after every six months.
He said a permanent monitoring system should be evolved and monitoring report should be presented to the authority regularly after every month. He said that progress should be made speedily on setting up central state-of-the-art data centre. Chairman Planning & Development gave a detailed briefing with regard to establishing a separate authority and Land Record Management & Information System. He told that the separate autonomous authority would update the land record and also ensure transparency and provision of services to the people.