Education development budget increased by record 400pc

LAHORE:Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat has said that Punjab province has increased the education development budget by a record 400%, raising it from Rs32 billion to Rs110 billion.

Similarly, the higher education budget is also being increased by up to 500%. He also said that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz believed that education should have no boundaries, yet the KP government is showing hostility to students by instructing their higher education department not to cooperate with students. If Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cannot provide laptops and scholarships to its students, it should at least allow them to receive support from other provinces.

During the joint press conference with Information Minister Azma Bukhari, Rana Sikandar Hayat announced that under the special directive of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, the Punjab government is giving scholarships to 5,000 students from other provinces. Comparing the PMLN government’s performance with that of PTI’s tenure, he said that where the previous government launched 1,004 development schemes, they have introduced 5,006 schemes with special reforms in the education department.

According to global standards, doors to corruption and favouritism were shut by implementing an e-transfer policy, making permanent appointments of VCs, education officers, principals, and school heads, ending 1.1 million fake enrollments, and achieving 2.6 million NADRA-verified enrolments. He said that we reduced teacher shortage from 56,000 and enrolled 2.6 million students. A commission was formed for Early Childhood Education, and 12,000 ECE classrooms were built, in which 450,000 children have been enrolled.

Rana Sikandar added that the School Meal Programme led to improvements in enrolment and student health rates. He said that by saving taxpayers’ money, where a classroom used to cost Rs5 million, they built 400 rooms for Rs1.25 million each.

The minister added that scholarship and laptop schemes have helped to transform the lives of thousands of youth. On the other hand, a historic crackdown against cheating mafias was carried out, and next year the practical exam mafia will be eliminated as well. In the press conference, Rana Sikandar also gave a good news about the provision of 26 coasters for girls' colleges in urban areas.