Punjab Finance Minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman has said that terrorism and unemployment can be wiped out through promotion of quality education. Addressing the delegations of youth here on Tuesday, the Minister said there is a need to utilise national resources equitably for setting up of a peaceful society and economic prosperity of the masses whereas problems like corruption, nepotism and unemployment can be controlled through good governance and transparency.
"Our country of 190 million people has a vibrant economy, our majority population is under 20 and this makes South Asia as the only large economic area that shall not face a decline in the number of people entering the labour force for the next 50 years, and the future is ours," he added.
He said the Punjab government considers education as a tool to development and record funds have been provided for school and higher education; Rs 2.10 billion has been provided for non formal basic education to 2 million illiterate persons. He said the Punjab government has recruited 140,000 educators last tenure and more educators will be recruited within few months to accomplish the target of 100 percent literacy rate in the province.
He revealed that DFID has given assent to provide a grant in aid to the tune of Rs 351 million to construct 15,000 additional class rooms, one additional class room for each public sector school having deficient facilities. He said financial grant is being provided for up-gradation of higher education, especially to the institutions of women, whereas, new women universities are also being established in Bahawalpur, Multan, Sialkot and Faisalabad for enhancing ratio of higher education among women. Moreover, 101 new colleges were constructed while missing facilities were provided to 96 colleges during the last six years," he added.
He told the youths that establishment of 82 new colleges have been planned while missing facilities will be provided in 68 colleges with a cost of Rs 1470 million. He also said the Punjab government distributed solar lamps among the 200,000 students last year with a cost of Rs 2.5 billion under Ujala Programme so that load shedding could not disrupt their study. "During current fiscal year laptops and solar lamps are being distributed among the students on merit under a transparent system. This will also help to reduce the dropout rate in the schools of far flung areas of the province," he added.
Comments
Comments are closed.