LAHORE – In Punjab assembly’s 22nd session Punjab Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman came under fire from opposition as well as government members on Monday for provincial government’s new educational policy. Addressing the house the minister said that the government would review its policy relating to the rationalisation of the schools.
He said that the government had adopted rationalisation policy to run all small schools, which did not have proper staff or teaching equipment. Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal asked the minister why the Members Provincial Assembly were not being informed for the policies that directly affect them.
The minister after facing strong objections from the opposition as well as the treasury members on the new educational policy adopted by the government in which government merged many small schools, Mian Mujtaba said that government would look into its decision again. He said that the government had already constituted a committee in this regard and its report would be presented in the house in the next session.
He told the house that government only registers private schools but it cannot interfere in there fee structure under the Punjab Educational Institutions (Promotion & Regulation) Ordinance and Rules-1984, so there was a need to re-consider the laws related to this matter.
He went on to add that the government wanted to make a law to control the fee matters and a draft was already under process to establish an educational regulatory authority in the province. To a question about shortage of science laboratories in the schools, the minister the government had to transfer the funds to facilitate the flood-victims.
