Senior Minister Raja Riaz Ahmad, while terming the promotion of education as top most priority of the provincial government, added that a sum of Rs 30.13 billion is being spent on educational development during the current fiscal year. He was talking to a 20-member delegation of educationists, teachers and philanthropists lead by Ayaz Hussain at his residence here on Sunday.
Reiterating the commitment of the government for achieving 100 percent literacy rate in the province, he said that both formal and non-formal methods are being used to achieve this target.
Government is also setting up computer labs in 4,574 secondary and higher secondary schools in public sector with an amount of Rs 5 billion. Purpose of this policy is to promote computer education in students of government schools so that they could also learn I.T education free of cost, he maintained. Another amount of Rs 1 billion is also being spent on up gradation of schools on need basis, he told.
Raja Riaz further maintained that special attention is being paid for promotion of women education in the province and told that 560 girls middle schools are being upgraded to high school status to promote girls education in remote areas. He said that a total amount of Rs 2 billion will be spent on this project.
He asked the teachers community to pay special attention to character building of the youth as we need educated and enlightened leadership having future vision as well. Students are vanguards of democracy and they should be taught how to play their part in nation building. Promotion of education will help to achieve poverty alleviation and composite development goals, he concluded.