‘39 schools in Punjab to be made vocational institutes’

LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Schools Education Rana Mashhood has said the government has decided to introduce technical and vocational education as a subject from middle classes in the public sector schools. As many as 39 comprehensive high schools in different districts of the province will be converted as vocational training institutes.

He expressed these views while chairing a meeting at the committee room of Industries Department in Civil Secretariat on Tuesday. Punjab Minister for Industries Sheikh Allauddin, Tevta Chairman Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, CEO of Punjab Skills Development Fund Jawad Khan, Secretary Industries Dr Mujtaba Paracha and representatives of line departments attended the meeting.

The meeting reviewed establishment of technical and vocational educational university in the province. Rana Mashhood informed the meeting that technical education would be introduced in collaboration with Tevta and disclosed that this facility would also be provided in Daanish Schools.

Rana Mashhood said a Chinese delegation would visit Pakistan up to 15 June so that necessary spadework about the establishment, faculty selection, research and syllabus could be finalised. The Chinese experts will also train the faculty members so that they could provide market-oriented education and training to their students.

Initially, awareness about technical education would be included in the syllabus from three and four classes. He said vocational training programme starts from middle and goes up to university level in China.

This model would be adopted in Punjab and the necessary assistance of technical education commission of China would be solicited, informed the minister.Sheikh Allauddin hoped that initiative would facilitate the youth and the students would be able to earn their livelihood by learning beneficial skills.