Govt to spend Rs 5b on 2,000 schools: minister

PUNJAB Minister for Education Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman has said that education is a top priority of the provincial government, and merit is strictly being implemented in the recruitment of the Education Department. The government has recruited 70,000 teachers purely on merit in a transparent manner, he added.

He said the government had taken new initiatives in the field of education during four years.

He said the Punjab government had spent Rs. 19 billion during the last four years to provide missing facilities in 8749 schools of the province whereas Rs. five billion would be spent during the current fiscal year for the provision of the missing facilities in 2000 schools.

He said that amount for endowment fund had been increased up to Rs. 10 billion. He said Rs. one billion stipend was being distributed among the girl students, belonging to remote and deprived areas to encourage the female education.

Talking to elected representatives at his assembly chambers, Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman said that the Punjab government had provided a sum of Rs. 10 billion to promote the school education in the marginalised strata, and 1.5 million deserving students in 36 districts would benefit from the said amount.

He told the media that a sum of Rs. 46 billion would be spent on the school education sector to elevate it according to international standards.

He said that more than 30 lakh children had been given admission to the schools as a result of the primary enrolment campaign launched by the Punjab government.

He said the government was also awarding scholarships to thousands of talented students for studying in the country and abroad.

He said that 25 lakh boy and girl students were getting computer education every year in the province through IT Promotion Programme of the Chief Minister Punjab.

Posted in: Lahore