Provincial Minister for Education Mian Imran Masood has said that departmental authority should ensure the completion of developmental projects well in time so that general public be benefited from their utility and objectives.
He stated this while addressing a high level meeting convened to review the development schemes of the education department here on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by Secretary Education, Shahid Rashid, Secretary Higher Education, Nazir Saeed, Special Secretary Schools, Imtiaz Tajwar, DPI (Elementary Education) Jamil Najam and Advisor to Chief Minister, Dr Saadia S. Chaudhry.
The minister said that construction of 615 schools within stipulated period at the cost of Rs 2,032.09 million under Girls Primary Education Project-II Punjab is highly commendable.
The meeting was told that Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided financial assistance of Rs 1,233.35 millions, Opec Fund Rs 501.05 millions and government of Punjab Rs 297.68 million for Girls Primary Education Project-II. The objectives of the project were enhancement of the participation of girls in primary education, improvement of the quality of instructions in primary schools and reduction in drop out rate.
Component-wise financial progress include buildings of schools Rs 1,278.63 millions, furniture Rs 80.50 millions, equipment Rs 30.48 millions, instructional material Rs 35.98 millions, community participation and consultants Rs 53.05 millions, staff development Rs 49.10 millions, salary of provincial implementation staff Rs 10.73 million, teaching staff salary Rs 386.82 million, operation and maintenance Rs 14.88 millions, incomplete work Rs 7.3 million and taxes Rs 1.48 millions.
Under the project, five classrooms (including existing building) one staff room, one headmistress's office, one teacher resource room, one storeroom, and five toilets were constructed in each school.
The minister was apprised about the annual development programme (ADP) of the department. ADP allocation for education sector for the year 2004-05 is Rs 7.697 billion.
Out of this, Rs 1.321 billion is for ongoing schemes and Rs 6.376 billion is for the new schemes (including PESRP), Rs 6.928 billion is for school education and Rs 0.769 billion is for higher education.