SIALKOT
A PML-N lawmaker has said that the Punjab government was committed to ensuring easy access of every child to quality education by opening new educational institutions.
Talking to newsmen, MPA Manshaullah Butt said that the government would not let any child deprived of education due to lack of financial resources. He said that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had already established Punjab Education Endowment Fund for giving scholarships and stipends. The government had allocated a chunk of Rs11 billion special funds for the purpose. He claimed that it was the biggest fund for education promotion and financial encouragement of brilliant students in the history of Pakistan. He said that the provincial government had also added Rs2 billion more in the fund.
He said that 1.5 million deserving students were getting quality education in private schools across Punjab under the financial support by the Punjab Education Foundation. He said that the Punjab government had decided to further expand the PEEF.
He added that the government would spend Rs1.8 billion for the upgradation of government primary schools to the elementary level across Punjab, besides, spending Rs1.25 billion for establishing information technology in the government schools and Rs600 million for establishing new government primary schools across Punjab.
The government would spend Rs1 billion on the construction of additional classrooms and allocated Rs500 million for providing furniture in government schools while Rs2 billion would be spent on the reconstruction and repairing of the government schools across the province, he said.
He added that the government had started implementation of a multi-phased programme for promotion of information technology laboratories of government schools with Rs1.20 billion. He said that the provincial government was also striving to achieve the target of enrolment of the maximum students in primary schools under the Universal Primary Education programme across Punjab. He added that under the programme, more than 4 million dropouts had been enrolled in the government schools.