Provincial Minister for Excise, Taxation, Law and Finance, Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman said the Punjab government was pursuing a comprehensive policy to promote and upgrade school education. Rs. 8 billion had been provided for the provision of missing facilities in all schools in the province and around Rs. 3.63 billion has also been provided for the distribution of free of cost textbooks to the students. IT labs have been set up in more than 5000 high schools and 515 middle schools; he said and added that Rs. 2.40 billion had been provided for the provision of non-formal basic education to two million illiterate people.
Addressing the delegations of youth here on Monday, he said that private educational institutions were playing a pivotal role in providing quality education to the public. The government highly appreciated the services of the private sector in terms of enhancing the literacy rate.
The minister said that the provision of education was the constitutional obligation of the government. However, it could not perform this duty singlehandedly, and required the support of the private sector in this regard. It is encouraging that private schools were providing standardised education. The presence of quality schools was a healthy sign for the education system of the country, he added.
Women’s universities in Multan, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Bahawalpur were under completion whereas three new universities for women at Rahim Yar Khan, Sahiwal and Okara will be established during the current fiscal year, he further informed.
He said that scholarships of around Rs. 12 billion were being provided to more than 50,000 students within the country and abroad from the Endowment Fund. Students of private education institutions are also benefiting from this fund.
