Punjab Finance Minister Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman has said that Punjab government is pursuing a comprehensive policy for the promotion and upgradation of school education and Rs 3.5 billion have been provided for the provision of missing facilities in all girls schools. He expressed these views in meetings with various delegations here on Friday, disclosed an official.
He said Rs 3.30 billion had been provided for the distribution of free of cost syllabus books to the students and Rs 7.50 billion to the Punjab Education Foundation for grant to private schools, as 1.3 million students were getting education in private schools.
He said Punjab government had spent Rs 19 billion during its previous tenure to provide missing facilities in 8,749 schools of the province, whereas Rs 5 billion were spent during the last fiscal year for the provision of missing facilities in 2,000 schools. "IT labs had been set up in more than 5,000 high schools and 515 middle schools. Scholarships of Rs 12 billion are being provided to more than 50,000 students within the country and abroad from the Endowment Fund," he added.
According to him, 3,068 primary and middle schools had been upgraded at a cost of Rs 1.3 billion during the last five years. More than 75,000 teachers had been recruited on merit in a transparent manner for removing shortage of school teachers throughout the province. Modern science labs have been established in 1,000 high schools of the province at a cost of one billion rupees.