Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has said that promotion of education was the top priority of the government and foundation of a new educational system was being laid under which standard of education would be further improved.
He expressed these views during a meeting with Ambassador of France Regis Delenet at the Chief Minister's Secretariat here on Thursday. Director French Center Lahore Mattien Pinel was also present on this occasion.
While lauding the role of France in provision of relief items as well as rehabilitation of calamity-stricken people of Azad Kashmir and NWFP, the Chief Minister said that present government was implementing a reform agenda.
He further said that the government had initiated educational reforms programme for the progress of education sector with its own resources, however keeping in view the importance and utility of this programme, the World Bank decided to extend its co-operation.
"The World Bank President has declared this educational programme as a role model. Due to Educational Sector Reform Programme, as many as 1,900,000 more children have enrolled in educational institutions, while 25,000 teachers were recruited last year and 25,000 more teachers would be recruited this year," he added.
According to him, the government was taking special measures for the training of teachers and training centers were being set up for this purpose in all districts of the province. Besides, foolproof arrangements have also been made for the monitoring of education system.
In order to provide missing facilities in schools and to ensure attendance of teachers, monitoring officers have been made duty bound to visit educational institutions. The provincial government was paying special attention to financial management and due to strict financial discipline; abundant resources have been made available for socio-economic development of the province. There was an excellent working relationship between Federal and provincial governments, which was inevitable for accelerating the pace of reforms.
Contacts with India at public level have improved and due to exchange of social and cultural delegations, both the countries were sharing each other's experiences. There were deep-rooted economic ties between Pakistan and France, which would mutually benefit from each other's experiences in agri research, irrigation and other sectors.
The French Ambassador said that France and Pakistan have lasting ties, which would further strengthen with the passage of time. "There was wide scope of mutual co-operation between the two countries in economic sector. There was need for setting up a university of technology here with the co-operation of France. Lahore was a very important city with regard to culture and education," he added.
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