Focus on school education development: CM

LAHORE

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that government is implementing a comprehensive programme for development of school education. He said that teachers’ training programme was an important element of education reforms road map as it was vital for quality education.

He said that schools reforms programme was yielding positive results.

He said that steps taken by the government were helping in raising the standard of education in the province. He said that Pakistan’s future depended on education. He said that education and health were top priorities of the government and maximum resources would be provided for the development of these sectors.

He was presiding over a meeting, here Monday, which discussed matters regarding improvement of school education, teachers’ training, promotion of IT and others issues. The meeting lasted for four hours. 

The chief minister said the Punjab government was paying attention to provision of missing facilities in schools and billions of rupees were being spent for this purpose. He said it was necessary to polish the creative abilities of the students.

He said that use of modern technology could help in raising the teaching standards. He said that IT labs had been set up in high schools at a cost of billions of rupees. 

Shahbaz Sharif said that laptops had been given to brilliant girl and boy students under a transparency policy and now a programme had been evolved to distribute tablets among the students of high schools.

He said that the future of the country was linked with quality education and it was necessary to impart modern knowledge to the young generation. He said that children working on kilns had been enrolled in schools and elimination of child labour from hotels, workshops and petrol pumps was next target of the government. 

He said that commitment, determination and hard work were essential for achieving education targets. 

press freedom: Shahbaz Sharif has said that freedom of press besides being a basic human right is also a test of all liberties. He said that press plays an important role in the formation of public opinion as well as promotion of consciousness.

He said that freedom of press goes a long way in strengthening of democracy and supremacy of Constitution. He said that journalist community had complete freedom in Pakistan and future of the country was linked to democracy and freedom of expression.

In a message on World Press Freedom Day, the chief minister said that free, positive and meaningful journalism was the essence of a civilised society.

He said that a responsible and free journalism could help in ridding the country of corruption, lawlessness and terrorism. He said the purpose of observing World Press Freedom Day was to highlight the importance of press freedom and journalistic responsibilities. 

Shahbaz Sharif said that Pakistan Muslim League-N government believed that a free media was essential for democracy and the freedom enjoyed by media today was the result of a long struggle of journalist community.

He said there was a need to pledge on this day that greater efforts would be made for maintaining freedom of press as it was of vital importance for stability of democracy and supremacy of Constitution.