‘6,514 Punjab schools without electricity’

LAHORE
Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS) in collaboration with Alif Ailaan Tuesday organised All Parties Conference on Education in Punjab and highlighted the importance of the role of political parties for creating better opportunities and results in the education sector.
According to a press release, Ahmad Ali, Research Fellow I-SAPS, highlighted the current challenges that existed in the education sector in Punjab. He stressed on the importance of Article-25 and how it would help the state in providing free and compulsory education to every child between ages 5 to 16 years in the present and the future.
In his presentation, Ahmad pointed out that out of 51,661 public schools across Punjab, 6,514 were without electricity, 612 without toilets, 795 without drinking water facility and 2,706 without boundary walls while buildings of 4,727 schools were in dangerous condition.
Statistical figures of the education sector from the entire province of Punjab were shared with the participants such as number of out-of-school children, missing facilities in schools, student-teacher ratio and dangerous school buildings another such statistics.
All parties vowed to work together to bring forth a change towards a better future in education of Punjab. All party members signed a resolution pledging their support for dealing with the existing challenges and helping on improving the education system in Punjab.
It was mutually expressed that education needed to be dealt with as a national issue and it was the duty of all parties to work for improvement of education system. The participants pledged to provide access and bring quality to education in Punjab.
The prominent among those who attended the session included MPAs Engr Qamar-ul-Islam, Chairman Standing Committee on Education, Ch Mohammad Ikram, Dr Murad Ross, Sadia Suhail Raana, Khurram Jehangir Wattoo, Naveed Chaudhry, Amir Hassan, Sardar Vickas Moakal, Syed Mohibuddin and Ishtiaq Chaudhry.