Constitution of Pakistan binds every government to provide educational facilities to every Pakistani. Every government has been trying to discharge this constitutional responsibility but inspite of this more measures are needed in the education sector. Lack of facilities in educational institutions and meager investment in this sector are the causes of low literacy rate.
In addition, our educational system is also class based. Public sector schools are an important part of our educational system and are providing academic facilities to lakhs of students. Besides, private sector is also lending a helping hand to the government in promotion of education and many schools of private sector are known for provision of quality education.
As stated earlier low investment has given rise to a number of problems in the education sector as a result of which desired objectives were not achieved with regard to promotion of education and improving its standard. Credit goes to the present government for keeping in view the ground realities.
It has made comprehensive planning in the field of education and taken result-oriented measures regarding teachers, students and improvement of standard of education, the results of which will be witnessed by the people in one or two years. It is a fact that the results of development measures in education sector cannot be seen overnight.
The government under the leadership of Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has described literacy rate as an important part of its educational development planning and effective measures have also been taken for the improvement of standard of education. Our education system depends upon co-operation of teachers and students.
Quality academic process can be promoted only through provision of favourable atmosphere to the teachers and students. Government has made a record allocation in its first budget for its educational programme and 90% more funds have been earmarked for the development of education sector, compared to the last year. Besides, a huge amount of financial resources has been provided first time in the history of the province for the encouragement of teachers and students.
The prize distribution ceremony for the position holders of Matric examination will be remembered as a memorable event in the educational history of the country as instead of traditional encouragement of students displaying outstanding performance in the examinations, first time their capabilities and achievements have been acknowledged in real sense and by awarding prizes worth lakhs of rupees instead of few thousands rupees on behalf of Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif the great asset of the country was encouraged in the real sense and they were made to realise that they were the future of the country and by utilising their leadership capabilities in various walks of life they will have the opportunity to bring the country at par with developed nations.
On the one hand position holder students have been awarded prizes while on the other hand they were presented guard of honour in Murree as VIP guests and the residence specified for Punjab Chief Minister was given for their accommodation.
A bitter fact during prize distribution ceremony of these examination results came to surface that position holders are talented but financial constraints did not allow them to further continue their studies. A student who was the son of a rickshaw driver had been earning livelihood for his family by plying rickshaw and it was not possible for his father to support him any further.
But the Punjab Chief Minister announced a fund of Rs 50 lakh for the student and he was assured that he can study at any local or foreign prestigious educational institution. This student got the attention of the government diverted towards those talented male and female students of the province who in spite of their good performance, were unable to get higher education.
Under the circumstances, it was decided that no talented student would be deprived of education due to paucity of financial resources and government will patronise thousands of talented students and after imparting them higher education they will be able to play an active role in the development and prosperity of the country.
For the achievement of this objective, a high level endowment committee including senior officers of Education Department and educationists was set up which submitted invaluable proposals for setting up an Endowment Fund.
Giving practical shape to these recommendations, Punjab Endowment Fund was established under Section 42 of Companies Ordinance 1984 and important personalities and educationists were included in its Board of Directors which will be headed by Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif.
With the launch of this fund, besides encouragement of students merit would also be promoted in the education sector. With the provision of this fund, it will be ensured that talented male and female students would not be deprived of education due to financial difficulties.
Punjab Education Endowment Fund is an important step and children of poor and deserving families will not lag behind in the field of education due to non-availability of resources but they will also be able to play their role in the development of the country by acquiring education in higher educational institutions.
Punjab government has decided that provision of this fund will be started in March 2009 and in the first phase 5000 talented students of higher schools, colleges and universities will benefit from the fund.
This step is a golden chapter in the history of Punjab and is a milestone towards establishment of a welfare society for which credit goes to the government for fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities.
Only those countries can be called as the developed ones where educational, health, prompt justice and other facilities are available to the people at their doorstep. The students of Southern Punjab will be given priority in the provision of scholarships from this fund as the examination results of Matric and Intermediate show that 50% position holders belong to southern areas of the province.
Government has launched Punjab Education Endowment Fund with a seed money of two billion rupees for the talented students to continue educational activities and a further amount of two billion rupees would be given during next year as a result of which the amount of initial investment will become four billion rupees.
The government alone cannot carry out all the work regarding educational development. It is laudable that Chamber of Commerce and Industry by donating an amount of Rs 10 lakh has practically participated in this noble mission of promotion of education.
With the launching of this fund, the impression will be dispelled that right of higher education is limited only to the children of rich class but the government by setting up Endowment Fund has practically proved that children of poor farmers and labourers will also be able to get higher education.
Endowment Fund Company will give scholarships to 5000 students in next March. As a result of this fund, the talented students of backward areas will get opportunities to study in Aitcheson, Grammar School and other leading educational institutions. Under this programme, position holder students of previous examinations will be sent to prestigious universities of Europe and initially 100 male and 100 female students will be enrolled in the universities of Malaysia.
The quota of the backward areas of the Punjab in the fund will be doubled while the quota of children of labourers studying in Social Security and other institutions will also be fixed so that they could also benefit from the fund. Talented students of all the four provinces as well as Azad Kashmir will also benefit from this fund as students from other provinces have as much right over this fund as those of Punjab and this step will be helpful in the promotion of inter-provincial harmony.
For the purpose of provision of financial resources for this fund, the Punjab government has decided that it will give a large amount of Rs 50 crore to this fund. In the first phase, scholarships would be given to the deserving and talented students of government schools from class VIII to postgraduate level and later its scope will be extended to private schools and the scholarships from this fund would be provided at the doorstep of talented students under a special system without any application.
These scholarships would be awarded after selection of male and female students as the basis of the academic performance. It is worth mentioning that 20% quota has been fixed for orphans, special children, widows, minorities and the children of employees of grade one to four while 5% quota has been allocated for the talented male and female students of the three provinces including Azad Kashmir which will result in promotion of national solidarity.
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