FAISALABAD – Only education could bring revolution in political, economic and social fabrics of the society as no community could make progress without it, said Faisalabad Education Executive District Officer (EDO) Sohaib Imran while talking to Pakistan Today. People could put themselves on a proper pedestal in the comity of nations by focusing on the education sector, he said, adding that Punjab Government was determined to spread education in every house and hut of the province.
He further said he had undertaken all necessary steps to provide basic facilities to the education units and to solve the problems of academic staff. He added that all the schools had been equipped with basic facilities and the problems faced by the teachers had almost been solved.
He said that in many schools of Faisalabad, particularly the higher secondary units, the students’ strength was low as compared to the available staff.
He further said the department reorganised the unbalance and shifted the surplus staff to other schools with higher number of students as the gravity of the situation was compelling the parents to send their children to the schools located far way from their homes.
He added the department also uplifted the status of 22 schools to higher secondary level, including 14 for girls and eight for boys that led to a positive scenario and the girls who were forced to quit further education due to lack of easy accessibility to schools were now able to continue their education nearest to their homes.
He encouraged the private sector education and said the registration and extension of private education units brought a substantial amount of funds in government exchequer. Some radical changes had been brought in private schools’ registration procedure which was very complicated in the past, he said, adding that in order to facilitate the applicants, the department was literally registering the students at their doorstep.
He said that he had suggested many facilities for the environment of class room as well as school that would uplift the literacy rate and the quality of education.
He added that meetings with the elected representatives were in progress to discuss and share information regarding those institutions that lacked facilities.
He further said that at the end of year 2011, all schools in Faisalabad would be furnished with all basic facilities that would bring an educational revolution in Faisalabad. He added that corruption in the purchase of school furniture had been removed by introducing a transparent and fool proof mechanism as the cheque payments were given to the heads of the institutions after the approval of bills from the account office. Teachers’ unions must study the manifestoes of their organisations, he said and added that he had settled all their demands and it was now their turn to work with honesty and integrity.
He further said that in 2009, out of a total 37,000 applicants, the department selected 3,000 candidates purely on merit and if any body submitted a fake degree, he was struck out during the scrutiny. He said the members of parliament from Faisalabad had shown their commitment to reinforce the educational policy in the region and the department would keep on struggling under the guidance of District Coordination Officer (DCO) Nasim Sadiq to achieve the high educational targets.
