Campuses to remain open as per schedule, says minister

LAHORE:Punjab School Education Minister Dr Murad Raas has clarified that public and private schools of Punjab will remain open as per schedule.

In a social media message on Monday night, Dr Murad Raas observed that reports about closure of schools from 15 October were completely false. He, however, asked schools to strictly follow SOPs to avert spread of COVID-19.

PU signs MoU: Punjab University’s Centre for Research on Sustainable Development Goals and Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO) have signed a memorandum of understanding to launch joint projects for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by United Nations in Pakistan.

In this regard, a ceremony was organised at Institute of Social and Cultural Studies (ISCS) here on Monday. Punjab Minister for Literacy and Non Formal Basic Education Raja Muhammad Rashid Hafeez, PU Vice Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmad, Quaid-e-Azam University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Ali, ISCS Director Prof Dr Rubina Zakar, PU Centre for Research on Sustainable Development Goals Prof Dr Khalil Ahmed, SSDO Executive Director Syed Kausar Abbas and others participated in the event. Addressing the ceremony, Raja Rashid Hafeez said that no nation could progress without education and illiteracy was the mother of most of the problems.

Therefore, he said, Punjab government was making all out efforts and had taken several initiatives to improve literacy rate and promote education for development of our country. He congratulated both the organisations for developing collaboration and emphasised that academics and civil society should work together and play their role in creating awareness and generating data that could help SDGs related policy making.

Prof Niaz Ahmed said that PU had set up Centre for Research on SDGs (CRSDG) for social development of our country. He said the aim of establishment of this centre was to integrate efforts of PU teachers and students working in different departments on various social development projects so that our nation could benefit from research.

Prof Dr Muhammad Ali said QAU would also collaborate with PU and other organisation to achieve SDGs for social development. Prof Dr Rubeena Zakar said PU has established CRSDG with an aim to make effort for elimination of poverty, protect the planet and ensure peace and prosperity for the people. She said the purpose of the centre was to translate SDGs into meaningful policies, solutions through evidence-based research, evaluation, training and advocacy.